Their spending more than triples since 2001

Ana Cota, Carlos Silva and their daughter, Carla Silva, 7, of Hermosillo, Son., arrive at Park Place mall, where they planned to shop for clothing and a large-screen television. The family makes the 4- to 5-hour trip to Tucson to shop about once a week.

Mexican visitors’ annual economic impact on the Tucson area has grown dramatically and is approaching the $1 billion mark, according to a University of Arizona study released last week.

“It’s a huge economic driver for us here in Tucson,” said Felipe Garcia, vice president of community affairs and Mexico marketing at the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Metro Tucson reaped a $968.7 million direct economic benefit from Mexican tourists from July 2007 through June 2008, up 245 percent over the $280.2 million in 2001, according to “Mexican Visitors to Arizona: Visitor Characteristics and Economic Impacts 2007-2008.”

Pima County reaped the largest share of their economic impact in Arizona, with more than 36 percent of the $2.7 billion in statewide spending occurring here, the report said.

Carlos Silva, Ana Cota and their daughter, Carla Silva, 7, make the four- to five-hour drive from Hermosillo, Son., weekly to shop in Tucson.

Tucson offers a better selection of products than he can find at home, Silva said Sunday as the family prepared to enter Park Place, ranked in the study as the No. 2 shopping destination in Tucson, behind Tucson Mall.

The family’s favorite stores at the mall are Old Navy, Sears and Macy’s, he said. They also like to get to Tucson Mall, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target, he said.

Silva said he was looking for clothing for Carla and a large-screen television.

The family typically spends six to eight hours shopping per trip to Tucson, he said.

Carla said the trips are about more than shopping. The family had breakfast at IHOP to celebrate Mother’s Day before hitting the mall, she said.

And her mom would be getting a nice gift at the mall, Carla said.

About 65,000 Mexican residents on average came to Arizona each day to legally work, visit friends and relatives, shop and play in 2007-08, the study says.

That comes to 24 million visitors for the year, a 4.9 percent increase over the 2001 total of 22.9 million.

Each day, visitors from Mexico spent $7.3 million in Arizona stores, restaurants, hotels and other businesses, an increase of 213 percent from 2001.

“Over 5 percent of taxable sales in Pima County are attributed to the Mexican visitors,” Garcia, of the visitors bureau, said. “It’s really good for us.”

The study was prepared by Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi and Alberta H. Charney of the University of Arizona Eller College of Management’s Economic and Business Research Center for the Arizona Office of Tourism.

Mexican tourism “really plays a significant role,” Pavlakovich-Kochi said. “Spending has occurred when our regional economy shows signs of recession. It has really offset to a degree the effect of the declining regional economy.”

Mexican consumers seem to be more willing to spend during the current economic downturn than Americans, Garcia said.

“When we talk to our visitors, they don’t seem to have a lot of anxiety about the economic turmoil,” Garcia said.

“They don’t stop spending because of what they see and read. The Mexican consumer is more used to it, better prepared, and they know things happen. They say things are bad but we’ll get out of this.”

More staying overnight

Local efforts to boost Mexican visitors and spending have paid off, Garcia said.

Mexican visitors who stayed here overnight jumped from 4 percent in 2001 to 16 percent in 2007-08, Garcia said.

“Overnight visitors always spend more than day trippers,” Pavlakovich-Kochi said.

A Tucson tourism office in Hermosillo, Son., has helped boost the number of visitors and their spending in recent years, Garcia said.

The office sells tickets for concerts or shows at Tucson-area casinos and offers other Tucson tourism services, he said.

Lower prices and greater product selection draw shoppers from Mexico, Garcia said.

Many textile and electronic products sold in Mexico are imported from Asia, he said.

Mexico and China are engaged in a “non-declared” tariff war, which means high prices for goods in Mexico, which pushes shoppers to Tucson, Garcia said.

Growing challenges

The Convention & Visitors Bureau has increased its spending aimed at attracting Mexican visitors from $30,000 to $300,000 in recent years, Garcia said.

But other communities – Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tempe and Las Vegas – are also going after Mexican visitors, he said.

Maricopa County’s economic benefit from Mexican visitors jumped from $36.5 million in 2001 to $694.2 million in 2007-08, an 1,800 percent increase.

“We’re definitely ahead of the curve,” Garcia said, “but there are a lot of communities that are trying to position themselves and gain market share. Here in Tucson, we know that retail is directly impacted by tourism. We cannot slow down, we cannot say we have been successful.”

One area being investigated for growth is drawing visitors here from Mexico for medical services.

That includes cosmetic and elective surgery, Garcia said.

“We are working with the medical industry to develop more medical tourism into Tucson,” he said.

“They come here and they pay cash. No insurance, no billing.”

A slide in the peso’s value against the dollar has made it more expensive for Mexicans to shop in the U.S., so fewer customers may be crossing now.

In April, the average exchange rate was 13.3944 pesos to a U.S. dollar compared with 10.5146 in April 2008, a decline of 27 percent.

Increasingly restrictive regulations for crossing the border and more stringent entry documentation policies could pose another challenge to Mexican visitor spending, Pavlakovich-Kochi said.

Making it tougher for Mexican visitors to get here means less revenue for local merchants – something few people consider when pushing for making crossing more difficult, she said.

“The focus has really been on the border issues and the illegal immigration,” she said. “This (economic benefit) has been on the back burner.”

While spending by Mexican visitors may decrease from 2007-08 levels, the area will continue to reap some economic benefit, Pavlakovich-Kochi said.

“Realistically, looking at the near future, we will probably expect a decrease in total spending,” she said.

“Maybe we had an extraordinary year of Mexican visitors and expenditures in Arizona. But it will continue: It is not something that will be totally erased overnight.”

Cronkite News Service contributed to this report.

———

TOP DESTINATIONS

Where Mexican visitors to metro Tucson shopped 2007-2008.

Malls/shopping centers

1. Tucson Mall

2. Park Place

3. Foothills Mall

4. Plaza Palomino

5. El Con Mall

6. St. Philip’s Plaza

7. La Encantada

8. Casas Adobes Plaza

9. Crossroads

Other stores

1. Wal-Mart

2. Costco

3. Best Buy

4. Target

5. Ross

6. Mervyn’s*

7. Walgreens

8. Circuit City*

8. Marshall’s

9. Home Depot

10. Food City

* now closed

Metro Tucson attractions visited by Mexican tourists

1. Casinos

2. Reid Park Zoo

3. Old Tucson Studios

4. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

5. Other museums

6. Saguaro National Park

7. San Xavier Mission

8. Tucson Convention Center

9. Concerts/theaters

10. Colossal Cave

11. University of Arizona

12. Downtown

———

WHY TUCSON?

A number of factors led to an increase in local expenditures by Mexican visitors between 2001 and 2007-08, said Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi of the University of Arizona Eller College of Management’s Economic and Business Research Center.

Metro Tucson saw a fourfold increase in overnight visitors from Mexico, she said.

The peso/dollar exchange rate was very favorable to Mexican visitors, who could purchase more goods for their cash, particularly in the first half of 2008, she said.

Fears of an impending peso devaluation, which occurred later that year, saw Mexican consumers increase their Arizona spending during the time of the study, she said.

And 2008 was the last year Mexican visitors were allowed to enter the U.S. before more stringent documentation requirements were enforced, she said.

———

$968 million

Tucson-area expenditures by Mexican visitors in 2007-08

245%

Increase in Tucson-area expenditures by Mexican visitors from 2001 to 2008

5.2%

Portion of taxable sales Mexican visitors accounted for in Pima County in 2007-08

A Mexican man in the U.S. illegally and driving drunk with only a Chiapas, Mexico driver’s license was sentenced Friday to 10.5 years in prison for killing a passenger in his vehicle in April 2008.

The vehicle of Carlos Antonio Balanzar-Ortiz, 37, had open containers of alcoholic beverages when it was searched, Pima County sheriff’s deputies said.

He was found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit for intoxication of 0.08.

He was charged with manslaughter and pleaded guilty to that charge in a deal with the county attorney to avoid a trial.

The April 22, 2008, crash killed his passenger, Antonio Aros-Gutierrez, 38.

Balanzar-Ortiz was sentenced to 180 days for misdemeanor driving under the influence but Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard Nichols gave him credit for 180 days served in jail awaiting sentencing.

Other lesser charges were dropped.

The victim’s two sons, ages 3 and 4, attended the sentencing hearing along with their mother.

Court documents show that Balanzar-Ortiz failed to yield to a tractor-trailer while he was making a turn at Alvernon Way and Ajo and the vehicles collided.

Aros-Gutierrez died at the scene.

Balanzar-Ortiz had only his Mexico driver’s license and a Mexican voter identification card on him at the time of the incident.

He is in the United States illegally and will be deported to Mexico on his release from the Arizona Department of Corrections, Nichols said.

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

A group of local, state and federal politicians demanded an apology from Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for statements regarding schools checking the citizenship of students.

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva was among the politicians – all Democrats – to sign a letter criticizing Dupnik’s statements.

“It is wrong to force teachers and school administrators to become immigration officers,” the letter said.

Dupnik, a Democrat, said at a news conference last week that 40 percent of the students in the Sunnyside Unified School District were in the country illegally and that the South, Southwest and West sides had high crime rates linked to illegal immigration.

“These false charges are inflammatory and prejudicial,” the letter stated. “Your comments only further divide our community and debase a large part of the population.

“The Pima County electorate trusted you to protect and serve our community, not to humiliate and instill fear,” the letter said. “Every child is entitled to an education regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation and status.”

Dupnik called last week’s conference to clarify comments he made during a hearing on border violence held by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month.

Dupnik, who could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon, stressed last week that his statements were his opinion only. He said he knew they would be “divisive.”

He suggested that a Supreme Court ruling that forbid schools from checking the citizenship of students should be challenged, saying that it would heighten border security if the ruling was overturned.

Adelita Grijalva, a Tucson Unified School District board member, said, “I think the comments he made were simply wrong, inflammatory and egregious.

“We talk about (Maricopa County) Sheriff Joe Arpaio and say that we’re happy we don’t have a sheriff like that,” she said. “If this is the way (Sheriff Dupnik) felt, I wish he would have made those statements a year ago when he was running for re-election, and then we could have decided if that’s the type of person we wanted for sheriff.”

Grijalva said she was eager to hear Dupnik’s response because she thought his statements were “really out of character from (the) whole time he has been sheriff. I’m still unclear what the motive was.”

When he said Sunnyside had about 40 percent illegal immigrants, “how would he even know that? Sunnyside doesn’t know because it doesn’t ask.”

Eva Dong, a Sunnyside Unified School District board member for more than 10 years, said she signed the letter because she was shocked and disappointed with Dupnik’s comments.

She said she didn’t like Dupnik putting Sunnyside into a position of law enforcement against immigrants, which, she added, is against the law.

“And I’d like to know the ‘credible’ source he has that said that 40 percent of Sunnyside students are illegal immigrants,” she said.

“The large majority of our community is not involved in crime. I was in shock when I heard the things he said. That he would lump us into a category of high crime is not right,” she said.

“We’ve worked hard this year to try to remove those images. We have businesses and the university working with us to be successful,” Dong said. “You work at it and work at it and work at it, and bang, someone comes and shoots you down. It’s just very hurtful.”

Dong, who works at the Pima County Juvenile Court Center in the CAPE program, which educates children incarcerated there, also took offense at Dupnik equating illegal immigrants with crime.

Even at the center, “the majority of kids there are not illegal immigrants,” she said. “They are very, very few.”

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva

———

Elected officials who signed the letter to Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

Richard Elías, chairman of the Board of Supervisors

Regina Romero, Tucson Ward 1 Councilwoman

Adelita Grijalva, board member of the Tucson Unified School District

Eva Dong, board member for the Sunnyside Unified School District

State Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson

State Rep. Matt Heinz, D-Tucson

State Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson

State Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, D-Tucson

State Rep. Olivia Cajero Bedford, D-Tucson

State Rep. Phil Lopes, D-Tucson

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.

By Mary Bustamante, Eric Sagara

The University of Arizona has identified three students who are studying in Mexico with Tec de Monterrey, a student exchange program at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.

UA spokesman Paul Allvin said classes at the Mexican institution have been cancelled, and the students are coming back to Arizona.

In addition, the university has identified 42 visiting scholars at UA who are from Mexico, and five more are expected to arrive soon, Allvin said. The ones who are on their way will be informed about health precautions before they arrive, he said.

Officials at UA have been meeting daily to discuss what they’ve learned about the swine flu and to determine if actions need to be taken at the university that day.

Allvin said he wouldn’t speculate what UA would do if a confirmed case of the flu was found on campus because the response would be based on a number of factors such as if the infected student lived in a dorm.

“We also have 88 faculty-sponsored projects ongoing in Mexico, but it is impossible to know which of these have faculty on the ground in Mexico right now and how many other employees are down there on unfunded service projects,” Allvin said.

A message from the provost’s office went out to campus leadership this week explaining that the university needs to develop a system to easily indentify which faculty might be out of country at any given time, he said.

CHICAGO — The timing is not the best. Immigration-rights rallies are set for Friday as health officials try to clamp down on a swine flu epidemic with roots in the same country as many of the expected demonstrators: Mexico.

Public health officials on Thursday had not advised canceling large-scale events unless they were specifically tied to an institution or location with a laboratory-confirmed case of the illness. They urged people to stay home if they are sick.

In Tucson, a rally is planned for 9 a.m. at Southgate Shopping Center, Interstate 10 and South Sixth Avenue, with a march from there to Armory Park, 220 S. Fifth Ave., starting at 10 a.m.

Organizers of the May Day rallies, which have drawn thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people in recent years, said they would look to recommendations from public health officials about whether to cancel or modify the events.

“We’re monitoring the situation to make sure that anything that is going to be conducive to the health and safety of communities is observed,” said Clarissa Martinez, a director for the National Council of La Raza.

Crowds on Friday were expected to be around the same as last year. In Chicago, which has had the nation’s largest marches in the country, about 15,000 participated in 2008. That’s a dramatic drop from 2006, when more than 400,000 took to the streets.

Thousands also were expected at events Friday in Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Seattle and other cities. Health officials urged participants to use common sense.

“The message ought to be clear that if people are sick no matter whether it’s Cinco de Mayo, a school, a church, a synagogue or any place of worship or anywhere else — a movie theater — they should stay home,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Terry Mason said Wednesday.

Some schools have closed because of the swine flu outbreak, and U.S. and Mexican officials have been urging migrant workers to take health precautions and get medical care if they feel sick.

The rallies come as illegal immigrants are being blamed on some conservative blogs and talk shows for spreading swine flu in the U.S. The outbreak is believed to have originated in Mexico, where there are 168 suspected deaths from the disease, before spreading to at least 10 other countries, including the U.S.

The only confirmed U.S. swine-flu death was of a Mexican toddler who family was visiting relatives in Texas; many reported cases were among U.S. citizens who vacationed in Mexico.

“For people who like to blame Mexicans, they are going to blame us for everything no matter what,” said Jorge Mujica, a labor union activist and organizer for Chicago’s immigrant rights march. “We are not going to pay attention to that.”

For most rally organizers, swine flu was secondary to promoting immigration reform, including pathways to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants — hopes buoyed with Barack Obama in the White House and a Democratic-controlled Congress.

More than 1 million people marched in cities across the country in 2006, when some in Congress were pushing for tougher laws against illegal immigrants. Although turnout at the marches has dropped steeply since then, organizers say their mission remains the same.

“It’s important for us to continue the fight,” said Margarita Klein with Workers United in Chicago, adding that union workers had been preparing for two months for Friday’s event.

Union leaders said they have set aside differences to promote a unified immigration overhaul plan they hope will get through Congress this year.

“I think we’re in a different position now in April 2009 than in April 2007,” said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress. “I think it’s become more diverse and mainstream, sort of at the same time.”

Some say immigration reform will help the economy.

“Immigrants are workers that are central to our economic success, and immigration reform is essential for stabilizing our work force,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Others say having a new president whose father was from another country — Kenya — has also buoyed hopes.

“You can feel it in the streets, people are waiting for some kind of solution,” said Mujica, the organizer in Chicago. “We have been waiting.”

All U.S. Citizens will have to show a passport book or passport card starting June 1, 2009, when entering the country through international borders and sea ports of entry.

After June 1, U.S. Citizens older than 16 traveling by land or sea must show a U.S. passport card or a passport book.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials will not longer accept a driver’s license and a birth certificate as proof of citizenship.

Those traveling by air will continue to show a U.S. passport book to re-enter the U.S. from international flights.

For more information visit www.travel.state.gov.

Pushing for excellent relations with public is a common theme

Tucsonans of many stripes are scrutinizing the pasts and credentials of four men who hope to be Tucson’s next police chief.

The candidates are expected to submit to three hours of questioning from the City Council in a closed session before the council’s regularly scheduled study session Tuesday.

The finalists, determined through rankings submitted by public panels, are Capt. Brett Klein of the Tucson Police Department, Assistant Chief John Leavitt of the Tucson department, Assistant Chief Blake McClelland of the Phoenix Police Department and former Chief Mark Paresi of the North Las Vegas Police Department.

The chief, chosen by the city manager and approved by the council, should be in place by May, officials said.

Former Tucson police chief and current Assistant City Manager Richard Miranda said he would interview the candidates Tuesday. He said all four finalists were qualified so his questions would be aimed at finding a good fit.

Miranda cited a willingness to speak directly to the public and to news outlets, a commitment to interact with neighborhood groups and an acknowledgement of the City Council policy that enforcing immigration laws is not a local police department’s responsibility. “It comes down to philosophy,” he said.

Human Resources Manager Tameron Collins, who is overseeing the recruitment, said two companies were hired to do background investigations.

The Tucson Police Officers’ Association, upset at the rigid terms of its role in the hiring, sent representatives to Phoenix, North Las Vegas and even Portland, Ore., where Paresi previously worked, union President Larry Lopez said.

“I believe that the process is flawed,” Lopez said, citing a prohibition on speaking to the candidates directly. “We’re taking this very seriously.”

Lopez said he’s looking for a candidate who has leadership, integrity and the backing of the rank and file. The union hasn’t endorsed a candidate but it will, he said.

Neighborhood activists are also doing their homework.

“It’s hard to define someone in a one-hour process,” said Christina Cruz, president of the Midvale Park Neighborhood Association and a participant in the neighborhood panel that submitted questions for the candidates.

Cruz has called neighborhood groups who have dealt with the out-of-town candidates.

With community panels held and rankings in, city officials are moving into the final round of vetting.

That will occur behind closed doors, but here’s what the candidates told the Tucson Citizen about why they should be Tucson’s next chief:

TPD Assistant Chief John Leavitt

Leavitt, 48, described his strength as his connection to Tucson and his advocacy for civil rights.

A native Tucsonan, Leavitt began work with TPD in 1982 as an unpaid reserve officer.

The experience was formative, he said. “Even back then, I realized that the most important factor in the success of the department is its communication with the public,” he said.

Expanding the reserves would be part of Leavitt’s plan if made chief. In five years, he hopes reserve officers would number 100, from fewer than 10 now.

Besides boosting manpower, the reserves add to the dialogue that keeps the department responsive, Leavitt said.

On immigration issues, Leavitt said he would follow direction from the City Council, which means no enforcement of immigration laws in neighborhoods or outside of suspects in criminal investigations.

His reasoning was based on a shortage of resources and a desire to ensure that no one is afraid to call the police for help.

Enforcing federal law, he said, would also mean “we get less prosecution of street-level crime, and street-level crime is what affects the everyday person.”

Leavitt advocates a return to focusing on prosecutions of gun crimes, which are easier to prove than drug and gang crimes.

He has a master’s degree in education from Northern Arizona University and participated in Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government program for local government officials.

Although the Tucson Citizen requested Leavitt’s personnel file Feb. 16, it had not been released by Friday.

A Citizen database of TPD disciplinary action since 2007 shows Leavitt was involved in a vehicle collision deemed preventable. The disciplinary action was counseling.

Because the union has not endorsed a candidate, union President Lopez would not speak directly about Leavitt.

TPD Capt. Brett Klein

Klein, 50, cited as selling points his 22 years with TPD, 30 in law enforcement and knowledge of how the department, the community and local government interact.

He stressed his leadership and communication skills and his goal of furthering the department’s relationship with the public.

“I think it’s the responsibility of the police department to communicate,” he said, pointing to his experience as a department spokesman.

On immigration, Klein, as with Leavitt, advocates continuing current policy.

“The police department has done a good job in determining what our role is,” Klein said.

“Until it becomes a matter of point with some other investigation we may be conducting, we don’t enforce immigration law,” he said. “We want to make sure that people who need the help of the police department call us.”

Klein said his plan as chief would involve watching local, regional and national trends carefully.

He would establish partnerships with nonprofit groups and other groups that work to prevent crime, for example, substance abuse services.

Klein’s education includes several executive training programs and a pending degree in justice system policy and planning from Northern Arizona University.

Although the Tucson Citizen requested Klein’s personnel file Feb. 16, it had not been released by Friday.

A database of TPD disciplinary action since 2007 shows that Klein was investigated for a supposed procedures violation that was determined unfounded.

Lopez declined to speak about Klein until the union makes a recommendation.

Phoenix Assistant Chief Blake McClelland

McClelland, 51, said, “I think that chief’s No. 1 responsibility is responsiveness to the community.”

He said he was uncomfortable answering questions from the media before Tuesday, but was “looking forward to answering questions and speaking to the mayor and council.”

Asked why he would like to be TPD chief, McClelland said “No. 1 reason is because it’s Tucson.” During his 32 years in Phoenix, he has visited the Old Pueblo for training and vacation, he said.

“I have a young family, and I look forward to the Tucson community,” he said.

On immigration, McClelland said, “I just think municipal police employees should not do routine enforcement of immigration. We need to find a more global solution and work with our federal partners and the state.”

McClelland’s education includes a doctorate from Arizona State University in public affairs with an emphasis on organizational theory and behavior.

Phoenix police union President Mark Spencer said he did not recommend McClelland for the Tucson job.

“Leaders do what’s right. Managers do what’s expedient. Blake is a good manager,” Spencer said, “but he has a tendency to follow the party line.”

Spencer pointed out that McClelland’s job history does not include experience leading a precinct, a position that involves the most interaction with the public and rank-and-file officers.

“He’s a nice guy, but if you’re looking for innovative leadership, I don’t know that you’ll find it in Blake McClelland,” Spencer said.

Former North Las Vegas police Chief Mark Paresi

Paresi, 57, said his greatest strength lies in his 20 years of community policing and dealing with “quality of life” issues.

“I think I would fit in well (in Tucson), particularly in this time of stress,” the 34-year law enforcement veteran said.

Paresi said he began an interest in community policing while working for the Portland Police Department, where he oversaw police expansion into an annexed area, working closely with neighborhood groups. “It was thrilling,” he said.

He cited budget and capital improvement plan experience in North Las Vegas, where the population grew by almost 100,000 over the five years he was chief.

Paresi said he wanted to be Tucson’s top cop because of the department’s reputation. “I was very impressed with the professionalism,” he said.

He said his leadership skills set him apart.

“I set performance standards for my staff,” he said. “I hold myself accountable and I hold my staff accountable.”

He said that idea translated into openness. In North Las Vegas, Paresi set up a public information office. “It’s my belief that we’re transparent, and there’s relatively little that we should not share.”

On immigration, Paresi said, “It’s the police department’s job to prevent crime and the fear of crime.”

He said he has not conducted immigration raids such as the high-profile ones in Maricopa County, though he advocates a “relentless pursuit” of offenders for drug, gang and trafficking crimes.

On future policy, Paresi declined to be specific.

“I think it’s incumbent on the new person to listen,” he said.

Paresi’s education includes a master’s in criminal justice from Portland State University and graduation from Harvard’s JFK School of Government’s program for local government officials.

On his 2007 retirement from the North Las Vegas Police Department, Paresi said: “I was brought in as a change agent. . . . There comes a point when you’re a change person; it was time to go a different direction.”

Allegations were made in Las Vegas newspapers that his retirement was prompted by political or union pressure or allegations that women and minorities faced discrimination within the department.

He called the articles “an inaccurate reflection” and said he was the first chief to promote women to command positions and started hiring more civilians and treating them as equals to officers.

“There’s a bigger story there,” he said of two women’s allegations of sexual harassment. The cases were dismissed in court.

The media also reported that Paresi hired the daughter of a city councilwoman as a paid intern.

Paresi said Friday that he probably wouldn’t do that again because of the media response but that he didn’t see it as a conflict of interest.

“The conflict of interest would have been if I had my own children working there,” he said.

North Las Vegas Police Officers’ Union President Terry McAllister declined to comment on reported past friction between Paresi and the union or why Paresi left the city’s employ.

“I’m sure he’ll do a great job,” he said.

Several day laborers wait to be picked up for work across the street from Southside Presbyterian Church, 317 W. 23rd St.,on an early Monday morning in February.

Ruben Arturo, 21, left his native Honduras seven years ago looking for work in the U.S., slipping across the border illegally into Arizona. But in the past six months work has been so scarce he has packed his bags and is ready to make the trip back home.

Arturo and about 30 other day laborers stand in the parking lot of the Southside Presbyterian Church every morning hoping to be picked up for a day’s work, but recently there have been days when hope is all they get.

Josefina Ahumada, 63, a social worker running the Day Laborers Center at the church, said the men at the street corner, both legal and illegal, “are just like everyone else who is struggling to make it through these hard economic times.”

The number of day workers at that corner has dropped from 60 to less than 40 on any given morning, Ahumada said.

She said in the past year there has been a steady decline of employers coming to the church, which she attributes in part to the slumping economy.

It also can be attributed to the Arizona’s Employer Sanction Law, in effect since Jan. 1, 2008.

The law can punish with fines and possibly the suspension of their business licenses any firms that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

“It wouldn’t be fair to say one had more impact than the other, because as the law took effect, the economy started falling,” Ahumada said.

Regardless of the reason, many illegal immigrants are leaving the country.

According to a report released two weeks ago by the U.S. Homeland Security Department, the number of illegal immigrants in the country fell for the first time in at least four years.

The decline still left the country with 11.6 million illegal residents in January 2008, down from a record 11.8 million a year earlier, according to a Homeland Security report. There were about 4 million illegal residents in 1990, according to federal agencies and researchers.

Despite the national decline, Arizona’s illegal population apparently grew.

The report said that about 9 percent of Arizona residents – about 560,000 people – are illegal immigrants. While the report did not say how many illegal immigrants lived in Arizona in January 2007, a September DHS report said there were an estimated 530,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona then.

But since fall 2007, Arizona’s economy has declined precipitously.

According to a December report by economist Marshall J. Vest of the University of Arizona, “Arizona’s economy has been contracting since the third quarter of 2007 – a few months before the nation’s economy topped out.”

The state’s latest jobs report bears that out. Phoenix lost 126,700 jobs in the 12 months ending in January – 37,500 in construction and another 25,600 in services.

In Tucson, nonfarm employment fell by 9,700 jobs, compared with numbers from January 2008. Manufacturing declined 3 percent, mining dropped 10 percent and construction jobs fell 25 percent.

Arizona overall has lost 155,400 jobs in the last year, a decline of 5.9 percent. Unemployment in the state rose to 7 percent – up from 4.9 percent a year earlier.

How many illegal immigrants have left the state since January 2008 is not known. The number of day laborers leaving the country can only be estimated because the U.S. Census Bureau tracks people who reside in the country without asking what their legal status is, said Pat Rodriguez, a U.S. Census Bureau partnership specialist.

But despite the dismal times, day laborers desperate for work continue to go to the parking area at Southside Presbyterian.

On a recent February day one of the laborers was waving an orange flag urging potential employers to pull in to the church’s parking lot at the corner of 23rd Street and 10th Avenue.

But trucks kept on driving by. In past years during the construction boom, most the men at the church would have been picked up for work by 8 a.m., a few laborers said.

Some of the day laborers are new to the street corner because they used to have steady jobs but have been laid off.

Others come and go but there are about two dozen men or more standing on the corner every day, Ahumada said.

The Day Laborer Center was started in 2006 by the church to help organize and educate the workers standing on the sidewalks near the area.

The center offers English lessons, a sign-up sheet for when employers need workers, and strict rules prohibiting drug or alcohol use and violence in the church’s parking lot, Ahumada said.

Lindy Sherman, a graduate student at Arizona State University, who is in the Tucson-based social work program, helps organize the day laborers.

“We not only help with the center, we are here to lend an ear to these men and try to keep their spirits up during a time of such desperation for work,” Sherman said.

She said one of the services for the men involves bringing a soccer ball to the parking lot to help keep the men busy and away from drugs and alcohol as they wait for hours, sometimes days, without work.

“During my time spent at the center, I’ve realized how many things we take for granted,” Sherman said. “Especially on days when not one guy gets picked up for a job. It’s really sad to see that.”

As laborers leave the country, Tucson business will be affected by their absence, said Price Fishback, a professor in the University of Arizona’s department of economics.

Their leaving “will definitely have an impact here on anyone selling products or services to immigrants,” he said.

Fishback, a specialist in the history of economics, said immigrant workers, are “pretty good” for the economy because they supply labor and increase a demand for goods.

“When the economy is bad here they leave, and when we need them they come back,” he said. “We’ve seen this happen in the past and it is happening again now.”

But a national immigration think tank believes the illegal immigrants leaving will ultimately be good for the economy and for out-of-work Americans.

Steven Camarota, director of research for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization, said in a report this month that “illegals are primarily employed in construction, building cleaning and maintenance, food preparation, service and processing, transportation and moving occupations, and agriculture. With the exception of agriculture (which accounts for only a small share of illegal workers – less than one in five), the majority of workers in these occupational categories are still native-born Americans.”

“If the United States chose to more vigorously enforce immigration laws over the next year, and this resulted in 1 or 2 million illegal workers deciding to leave, it could significantly improve the employment prospects for less-educated natives. An economic downturn would seem to be the ideal time to step up enforcement because such efforts would be buttressed by the economic situation, and a recession is the time when Americans, especially the poorest and least educated, are most in need of jobs.”

Most of the Tucson day laborers work construction, hospitality and home repair jobs, but “right now it seems as though most of the possible jobs are gone,” Ahumada said.

Arturo, the illegal immigrant from Honduras, said he used to get jobs weekly, but in the past six months all of his jobs combined do not add up to three weeks worth of pay.

“And that’s truly not enough to live,” he said.

That is why, he said, he will soon go back to his hometown in Honduras.

“I don’t know if things will be better back home, but I just can’t be here if I’m not getting work,” he said.

Even though the jobs are becoming less available, not all the workers will follow Arturo’s steps.

Some men come from Central American countries and many regions in Mexico where they face extreme poverty, political prosecution and danger, and “that’s why staying here and waiting for a better tomorrow is sometimes their only choice,” Ahumada said.

For many day laborers, the U.S. is their country of origin as far as they know. She said some of these men have been living in the U.S. for decades and came here when they were young, “so there’s not the option of ‘going home’ for them.”

“I believe there’s a misconception out there that these people are just hanging out in the corner. The reality is that these are people (who) are working in our communities and are part of them.”

To avoid problems, Ahumada said, volunteers have implemented a zero-tolerance policy for violence and alcohol and drug use at the center.

“We want to make sure that people in the area, and police, know our guys and separate them from all those who are committing crimes around here,” she said.

Tucson Police spokesman Sgt. Fabian Pacheco said the center has not been a major source of crime in its neighborhood. He also said that if there are problems in the area, TPD’s policy is not to ask suspects, victims or witnesses their citizenship status.

“We investigate any problems with criminal activity in the area, not whether the people causing the problems are here legally or not.” Pacheco said. “That’s the job of Border Patrol and ICE.”

Vincent Picard, a spokesman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said ICE is after employers who are hiring illegal workers, not after those workers standing on the streets. Neither is the Border Patrol,which is mostly concerned with the border and the transportation of illegal immigrants, he said. “ICE conducts targeted enforcement operations. Our agents don’t drive around looking for people who are here illegally,” he said.

When employers knowingly hire illegal day laborers, then ICE would be involved, Picard said, because the employer is the one violating the law.

For some of the day laborers, such as 48-year-old Antonio Garcia, going to the church is a matter of survival.

“We have to survive; I have to provide for my family, and it’s getting tougher by the day,” he said. “All we can do is have faith that there will be more jobs again.”

Garcia has been standing outside the church from 6 a.m. to noon every day since last summer, waiting for more employers to come, he said.

“My wife can’t work, so it’s all up to me to bring food to the table,” he said. “That’s why I’m here every day.”

Spring break for University of Arizona students frequently means a trip south of the border. But this year, UA officials hope collegians will choose another fun-in-the-sun destination.

UA Dean of Students Carol Thompson sent an e-mail last week alerting students to be aware of a travel advisory from the U.S. Department of State that warns of increased border violence tied to gang wars. UA’s spring break is March 14-22.

The advisory, in effect until April, says drug cartels are engaged in “an increasingly violent fight for control of narcotics trafficking routes” between the U.S. and Mexico.

“Due to these circumstances, the University of Arizona Dean of Students Office strongly advises students to avoid travel to Mexico at this time and during spring break,” Thompson wrote.

The State Department first issued the alert in October, according to its Web site. It states certain crimes in the northern region of Mexico are on the rise because of drug cartel activity, including stolen vehicles, bank robberies, petty thefts, public shootouts, kidnappings and homicides.

Thompson said that UA offers tips for safe spring break activities every year, but the advisory prompted officials to take the extra step this year and warn against any travel to Mexico. “In general, Rocky Point is the spring break destination for college students on the West Coast from various college locations,” she said. “We thought, after reading the advisory, that it was wise to let the students know this information and to encourage them to look at other places to go.”

Thompson said UA didn’t offer suggestions of other destinations, but has two programs planned to help students make safe decisions about their spring break activities.

March 1, the Fraternity and Sorority Programs organization will host the second annual Hunter White Safe Spring Break Program at 1 p.m. in the Student Union Memorial Center Ballroom. Speaking at the event will be Mark Sterner, whose drunken-driving during spring break in 2001 killed three friends. The second event will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 6, when the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, Thompson’s office and campus police “share a variety of information on how to have a good, safe spring break.”

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http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_3028.html

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has more than 1,000 jobs open in Arizona.

A job fair here Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters will allow applicants to fill out paperwork and talk with Homeland Security workers about the openings.

The event will take place at 2430 S. Swan Road.

Bonnie Arellano, spokeswoman for CBP in Arizona, said Friday up to 2,500 jobs could be filled in the state as part of a national recruitment effort by the agency: CBP National Career Day.

“Doors are open. Come a knockin’,” she said.

The openings are for port of entry inspection officers, agriculture specialists who inspect produce shipments, Border Patrol agents, human resources workers, mechanics and other support jobs, Arellano said.

Among the jobs available in southern Arizona, and their annual salaries:

• Mission support specialist, Tucson, $30,772.

• Import specialist, Nogales, $30,772.

• Supervisory information technology specialist, Tucson, $70,615.

For details on CBP’s mission, go to www.cbp.gov.

To look for CBP openings, go to www.usajobs.gov and enter “CBP” in a keyword search.

The American Civil Liberties Union has ended a lawsuit on behalf of two Border Patrol agents after they were restored to their jobs.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico sued in federal court last May in Tucson, contending agents Juan Curbelo and William Leafstone Jr. were suspended from normal duty in the Tucson sector after Leafstone testified about the practice of stopping vehicles without reasonable suspicion.

ACLU of New Mexico executive director Peter Simonson says he’s delighted the agents’ jobs were restored.

The ACLU says another agent stopped Curbelo’s ex-wife and children near Rodeo, N.M., in December 2006 and arrested her on marijuana charges that later were dismissed.

The men were placed on administrative duty after Curbelo expressed concern and Leafstone testified at the woman’s hearing.

A California man who was born in Hong Kong may be deported for his role in an interstate human smuggling scheme.

U.S. District Judge Frank R. Zapata sentenced Tim Way “Keith” Tom, 47, on Monday to time served, which was 14 days in custody, and deportation for providing cars used to smuggle Mexicans into California through Arizona.

Tom was ordered to self-surrender to immigration officials in Santa Ana, Calif., in June.

However, because Tom was born in Hong Kong when it was under British rule, now that it belongs to China, that country won’t take him, said his lawyer, Harriette Levitt.

Tom is studying engineering to further his chances of employment in hopes that he will be able to stay in the states with his American-born wife and children, Levitt said. Tom has been a legal resident of the United States for more than 20 years, she said.

In September 2005, Tucson agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol came across seven illegal immigrants in a vehicle with California plates registered to Tom’s Santa Ana rental company.

The driver identified the coordinator of the smuggling as David Carl Gunderson of Marana. The driver said Gunderson gave him the vehicle, a cell phone, $200, directions to the place where the immigrants waited and a contact number in California, which was Tom’s business.

On Feb. 15, 2006, ICE agents saw a gray SUV registered to Tom’s business pull up to an apartment in Orange, Calif. Fifteen illegal immigrants were found in the apartment.

The next day, undercover Tucson ICE agents went to Tom’s company, Action Rental Cars, where one of them asked Tom about renting a vehicle to transport illegal immigrants in Tucson.

Tom told the agent he couldn’t take the vehicle to Tucson because things were “very hot” for him, according to the federal complaint against Tom.

Tom told the agent the Mexicans were bailing out of the cars to avoid being caught and that he was trying to avoid cops as well.

The next day, agents saw Tom and his wife, Suzanne Tom, moving boxes out of the office. The couple was arrested; both waived their Miranda rights and gave statements.

Keith Tom said he knew his vehicles were being used to transport illegal immigrants and that he’d gone to Arizona to reclaim his vehicles with Gunderson’s help.

Suzanne Tom said she didn’t know what was going on, though she suspected the company’s vehicles were being used for illegal activity.

During his August trial, Gunderson claimed he was merely helping to collect and repair the vehicles. He claimed he didn’t know until “late in the game” that he was involved in human smuggling, court records show.

However, Keith Tom and others testified that Gunderson was an active member of the ring and knew as early as 2003 that illegal immigrants were being smuggled in the cars.

Keith Tom testified that he paid Gunderson $100 each for about 30 vehicles he recovered or repaired.

Agents testified that Gunderson had to know the vehicles were used for human smuggling because they had “BP” for Border Patrol written on the windshields when they were towed.

Gunderson was arrested in 2004 for transporting illegal immigrants when he was stopped and there were seven illegal immigrants found lying on the floor of his car.

Gunderson was convicted of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for profit and will be sentenced Tuesday.

Suzanne Tom was charged with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for profit and transportation of illegal aliens for profit. Federal prosecutors dropped the charges against her in April.

A Tucson woman was sentenced to two years in prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport an illegal immigrant, said Sandy Raynor, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix.

Gloria Eva Rodriguez, 35, drove to the Nogales port of entry in a rental car on Aug. 1 with a 3-year-old boy, Raynor said. Rodriguez reportedly said the boy was her son.

Rodriguez presented authorities with her twin sister’s identification documents. She also presented a birth certificate for her sister’s son.

The boy is not a U.S. citizen and is not related to Rodriguez or her sister, Raynor said.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection official became suspicious, Raynor said in a news release, and interviewed Rodriguez.

The Tucsonan admitted she had agreed to be paid $100 to smuggle the child into the United States and take him to “Aunt Jasmine” in Tucson. Rodriguez’s sister did not know her sister had taken her and her son’s identity papers.

Rodriguez was sentenced Friday in federal court by Judge John M. Roll in Tucson.

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey ruled Wednesday that illegal immigrants have no constitutional right to challenge deportation rulings when their lawyers err.

His 34-page opinion said that a case can be considered for appeal only if the “aliens” prove that the lawyer’s mistake was “egregious” and that prejudice arose from the errors, leading to an incorrect ruling.

Deportations are civil cases, and defendants do not have the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of legal counsel that applies to criminal cases, Mukasey pointed out in his ruling.

However, illegal immigrants are entitled to due process under the Fifth Amendment because it applies to “all persons within the U.S. including aliens whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary or permanent.”

Illegal immigrants hire their own attorneys or, more often, represent themselves in Immigration Court.

“A private attorney is not a state actor who can deprive anyone of due process rights,” Mukasey wrote.

Before Mukasey’s ruling, clients who lost a Board of Immigration appeal could challenge it in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said local immigration attorney Gloria Goldman. But now, “once the board says no, that’s it. You can’t go forward.”

On Wednesday, Mukasey – in his final days as U.S. attorney general – overruled the 20-year-old policy that said an illegal immigrant could qualify for reopening removal proceedings based on a lawyer error.

President-elect Barack Obama’s new administration will have to look at the ruling, Goldman said, “but unfortunately, it won’t happen right away. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Another Justice Department rule, which took effect Friday, directs federal agencies to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained by U.S. authorities.

Justice officials have estimated the DNA rule would put 1.2 million DNA samples into the federal DNA database each year.

Thirteen states already collect DNA samples from some arrestees, according to a 2008 survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Nearly all limit the practice to arrests related to violent crimes or felonies.

At the federal level, officials will take a cheek swab for DNA from arrestees along with fingerprints regardless of the nature of the offense, according to the Department of Justice.

Legislative records show that as a senator, Obama supported the laws that authorized the DNA collection.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Douglas Thomas Ferraro Jr. has been appointed as a full-time U.S. magistrate judge for the District Court in Tucson.

Presiding U.S. District Judge John Roll said Thursday the post was created last year to help with an increase in border crime-related cases, the result of increased law enforcement.

Ferraro began his duties Dec. 30, according to his appointment order, and will serve an eight-year term.

Roll said Ferraro is using the courtroom reserved for visiting judges, who come to court several times a year to help with the burgeoning caseload.

Ferraro obtained his undergraduate degree from Northern Arizona University and law degree from the California Western School of Law in San Diego, according to State Bar of California online records.

Ferraro was working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tucson before this appointment, according to Bar records.