© unknownJohn McCain
Fire officials said three major blazes in Arizona were started by humans, but they don't know any more details.
Activists swiftly jumped on Mr McCain's statement as "scapegoating," saying that state leaders were merely deflecting attention away from wildfire response.
The debated raged as people returned to homes that had been evacuated near the US-Mexico border. One day earlier the so-called Monument fire swept off a mountain into the outskirts of Sierra Vista, forcing about 3,000 residents of 1,700 homes to flee.
The evacuations brought the total to about 10,000 people from 4,300 homes forced out by the blaze. The fire has burned more than 40 square miles since it started about a week ago and had destroyed 44 homes.
Meanwhile, in the central part of the state along the New Mexico border, the largest blaze in state history has charred an area five times that size.
© ReutersA wildland firefighter works at a hot spot on the eastern edge of the Wallow Wildfire outside Alpine, Arizona
Officials said three blazes were the result of human activity. Whether illegal immigrants were involved - as has sometimes been the case - is unknown.
The issue heated up over the weekend when Mr McCain told media: "There is substantial evidence that some of these fires have been caused by people who have crossed our border illegally. The answer to that part of the problem is to get a secure border."
The statement brought a quick reaction from activists.
"It's his constant refrain for everything that ails mankind," said Roberto Reveles, the founding president and a current member of Somos America, an Arizona-based immigrant rights group.
"It just seems like we have an epidemic of 'blame it all on the illegal aliens, blame it all on the Mexicans.' It's amazing that the public doesn't rebel against this type of scapegoating."
Mr McCain and fellow Arizona Republicans Sen. Jon Kyl and Rep. Paul Gosar released a joint statement Monday defending McCain, saying that they had been told that some fires in the southern part of the state are started by illegal immigrants.
Reader Comments
"t's amazing that the public doesn't rebel against this type of scapegoating."
Probably because the public has already been conditioned to "blame it all" on the radical Muslims.
that Simpson's episode the night before? The one where Illegal immigrants were blamed for the reason that a bear was seen in Springfield? I think probably.
Implicate ALL illegal immigrants for the actions of the few.
Step two: Take out new draconian legislation targeting illegals from behind back.
Step three: Smile as if you aren't full of shit.
cause I was about to blame the fires on McCain.
"illegals" - as though one's humanity is elicit - is about political pandering and border control. The pandering flames the fires of an ill-informed do-something-ism amongst the rabble, which leads to "justified" tightening of the boarder. The beneficiaries of these policies will be those who formed the "free-trade" agreements which first ensured the influx of migrants across loose borders, anyway (due to the flooding of Mexico's agricultural sector with subsidized, cheap U.S. grains: the real reason the southern brothers and sisters trekked northward through deserts [i.e. farming became too tenuous a profession]). This allowed for a decrease in real wages in the Southern U.S. - and then, later, the north - as migrants flooded the skilled trades and manual labor sector, working for pennies on the dollar which where altogether more valuable than wages expressed in the comparable peso back home. Wages were depressed across the country, because there were always those with less (i.e. Mexicans and other Central and South Americans) willing to work for less, which would still be more to them. This undermined union strength and contributed to the current malaise amongst unskilled labor and the trades within the U.S.. But, if you're the power loosening the border to bring about the depression in wages, you have to strengthen the border before the rabble tire of scapegoating and start looking at real causes to what is occurring (This would, inevitable, mean that the poor of the U.S. and of Mexico and elsewhere discover how they've been "played" off of each other to others' ends.). Now, given that the same powers have a death grip about fiscal and economic policy, a new means of depressing real wages can go on and on while continuing the scapegoating nonsense. That is, they have within their possession other means of depressing wages than the former border business. The new means of wage depression is inflationary policy regarding the U.S. dollar (You'll be earning the same but capable of buying less). The only thing continued scapegoating will lead to now is the "successful" closure of a border allowing for "free trade" but not free travel. Next will be limits (and its already upon us) to exchange of currencies and commodities which would allow for transfer of real wealth into items maintaining their value. The Horde's horde, just like the Horde, is being horded by the real whores.
It's about not allowing the economically abused a means of escape or exchange of ideas and wealth (and value). TPTB are thinking, "they got to be kept on the plantation. We'll keep 'em so depauperate they can't think of leaving... or much of anything else; and, if they do, other mechanisms will ensure they never do again."
Pandering perhaps, but don't leave out the subroutine programs of the political puppetry, of which Johnny is known to subscribe to. It seems he 'went off' accidentally and didn't realize it. But isn't this why they have minders? To spin the mistakes until we are too bored to bother?