Many Arizona Hispanics backed crackdown on illegals

November 15, 2004

Many Latino Arizona voters, almost a majority, backed an Arizona initiative to deny benefits to illegal immigrants. Politicians and advisers have widely assumed that any crackdown on illegal immigration would be very unpopular with America's burgeoning Hispanic population.

But with Proposition 200 in Arizona, which will deny some government benefits to illegal aliens and require proof of citizenship to vote, assumptions about Hispanic voters proved wrong.

Forty-seven percent of Arizona Latinos backed Proposition 200, a number suggesting that almost as many border-state Hispanics want strict enforcement of the immigration laws as those who don't.

The measure passed with the overall population, 56 to 44 percent - over the opposition of Arizona's political establishment, including business groups, churches and Republican and Democratic lawmakers.