Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's whopper about beheadings in the desert, likely an effort implicitly link fears of illegal immigration to fears of terrorism, allowed her opponent, Democrat Terry Goddard, to draw some blood in their last debate. In response, the Brewer campaign has said there will be no more debates, and Brewer herself has admitting to "misspeaking" about the beheadings.
This isn't just about beheadings, though. Brewer's support of SB 1070 rests on a number of false assumptions, of which her statement about beheadings is only the most outrageous. Here are a few others:
"We are certainly under attack by the drug cartels and by the drug smugglers, the human smugglers. It's out of control. It's totally out of control." (via)
Illegal immigration in Arizona, like crime, has decreased. "Out of control" is a subjective judgment, but given Brewer's statement in the same interview that "the problem has gotten worse," it's fair to say this is incorrect.
"The majority of people coming through Arizona trespassing are now drug mules." (via)
This statement is difficult to quantify one way or the other, but crime statistics suggest it's false. The fact that it's unsupportable means that the governor shouldn't be making the claim. Also, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the native born.
"The city of Phoenix has earned the dubious distinction of being the kidnapping capital of the United States, ranking second only behind Mexico City in the world." (via)
This statement is not only false, but kidnapping is down in Arizona, like crime as a whole.
"[W]e have over a thousand illegal immigrants coming across the border a day. And of those that are apprehended, 87 percent of them have criminal records." (via)
Unclear where Brewer got this statistic. First of all, her own office has no idea, second, a call to Customs and Border Patrol confirmed that they don't list the percentage of immigrants with criminal records deported through border apprehensions. Southwest border apprehensions are down as a whole, though, just like illegal immigration itself.
So when Brewer says, "We cannot afford all this illegal immigration and everything that comes with it, everything from the crime and to the drugs and the kidnappings and the extortion and the beheadings and the fact that people can't feel safe in their community," it's silly to focus solely on the "beheadings." The rest of that statement is just as misleading. Walking back that one claim shouldn't let Brewer off the hook for her record of distortion and hyperbole when it comes to immigration.
