Ariz. Immigration Bill and Davis County Utah Connections

By Jesse Furhwith 
Salt Lake City Weekly
 
NPR's Laura Sullivan reported this week on corporate-government coziness that birthed Arizona's immigration law, the toughest in the country. One story referred to the biggest Utah-based company you've probably never heard of, and today a Utah legislator was named.


In brief, Sullivan reports on the deep involvement corporate prison companies had in drafting Arizona's law and also the vast network of state legislators from various states who were also involved in seminal meetings to create that law. The corporations even named the bill that eventually became law in Arizona and drafted it with lawmakers, Sullivan reports. One legislator says corporate influence on the law is overblown. Rep. Paul Ray, a Davis County Republican, chaired the committee of a private organization that considered the bill and passed it on as model legislation. 


Today, Sullivan delved deeper into the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, an educational endeavor for state lawmakers that seems to have as much in common with K Street-style lobbying as it does Weber State-style education. If you have not read/listened to Sullivan's bombshell stories on this, I highly recommend both of them: Shaping State Laws With Little Scrutiny and Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law.
But on to the Utah connections... Ray says Sullivan's sources are lying. "If anyone is trying to say that private corrections guys had anything to do with that bill, they're flat-out lying to you."
But it gets more complicated, and Ray eventually conceded in our conversation that private-prison industry representatives were involved in crafting model legislation that became Arizona law. Corporate influence is the very nature of ALEC, Ray said.


"I hope they [private prison industry reps] were [involved in drafting the model legislation] because they have a member on the committee," he said. "I have a committee made up of a couple hundred people. [Private prison industry representatives] are members of ALEC, they have a right to be there." 


Ray denied, however, that private prison industry representatives provided any language or edits to the draft legislation--"There was not one amendment or change that came from corrections"--but pleaded ignorance as to whether private interests actually named the bill as Sullivan's reports claims. Ray says that I'd have to talk to Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, the lead sponsor of the Arizona immigration bill, who Ray says brought the bill to ALEC where it was discussed.


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