An immigration reform movement in D.C. in May. (Image by Arasmus Photo.)

The controversial Arizona immigration laws came about because of the unusual confluence of many things, but according to an NPR report, a good part of the impetus behind the legal change was due to the lobbying of the Arizona prison industry, which saw an economic opportunity in incarcerating female illegal immigrants and their children.  (Thanks to The Dish.) An excerpt:

“Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.

Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.

‘The gentleman that’s the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger,’ Nichols said. ‘He’s a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman.’

What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants.

‘They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community,’ Nichols said, ‘the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate.’

But Nichols wasn’t buying. He asked them how would they possibly keep a prison full for years — decades even — with illegal immigrants?

‘They talked like they didn’t have any doubt they could fill it,’ Nichols said.

That’s because prison companies like this one had a plan — a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And the plan became Arizona’s immigration law.”