Arizona's message to the feds: Forget you guys, we're building our own fence. Thanks to new legislation, the state is taking illegal immigration into its own hands and is now accepting private donations to build a wall at the Mexican border. Lawmakers have set up a website where anyone can contribute to help raise the estimated $50 million needed, reports the Arizona Republic.
"Donate to the country's security," said state Sen. Steve Smith, who sponsored the legislation. "This is an American problem, not an Arizona problem." The leader of the National Immigration Forum thinks it's a lousy idea. “Spending on a fence is bad public policy,” Ali Noorani tells Politico. ”The mechanics of this are very murky. The data proves that a wall is a waste of money." (More Arizona stories.)