Anti-immigration gets harsher in Arizona

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Renita Jablonski: One of the nation’s harshest anti-immigration laws goes into effect today in Arizona. If a company knowingly hires undocumented workers, it could lose its business license. From the Americas Desk at WLRN, Marketplace’s Dan Grech reports.

Dan Grech: Dawn McLaren with Arizona State University recently took a road trip as part of her research into the economics of immigration.

Dawn McLaren: If you go down our main highway to our southern border, you’ll see lots of people returning home with refrigerators and dining room sets and obviously entire households. This indicates to me that they’re not going home just for the holiday.

McLaren says this is a permanent move, and it’s an ominous sign for Arizona’s economy. The state depends on immigrants for 10 percent of its workforce.

McLaren: There is damage being done to our economy. We’re already looking at a softening economy that perhaps is not going to be able to bounce back quickly.

The state already faces a labor shortage that looks to be getting worse.

I’m Dan Grech at Marketplace.