West Digs Deeper

Ummmm… riiiiiiightt...

Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy West, who drew a tidal wave of reaction when she said last month that Arizona had no border with Mexico, attributes that remark to distractions of other issues being heard by the board.

“Of course, Arizona is on the border with Mexico and I made a speaking error that many people have been unable to forgive,” West said during a radio interview that aired Monday on WISN-AM (1130).

She said Arizona had no border with Mexico during a debate on a resolution calling for the county to boycott doing business with Arizona over its new immigration law.  Other issues before the County Board at its June meeting—censuring Supervisor Lynne De Bruin and state-ordered repairs to the Mental Health Compex—distracted her, West said on the County Board-produced radio show.

“I should have better organized my comments,” she said. She intended to make the point that it would have been more understandable if a state like Texas with several populous cities on the Mexico border had passed an immigration law like Arizona, West said.

She meant to say that “the large population centers of Arizona are much further from the border” than Texas cities, according to West.

Hmmmm… let’s look at the 5 biggest cities in Texas and their distance from the Mexican border (measured as the crow flies on Google Earth).

Houston - 300 miles from border
Dallas - 350 miles from border
San Antonio - 130 miles from border
Austin - 200 miles from border
El Paso - ON the border

And Arizona:

Phoenix - 110 miles from border
Tucson - 65 miles from border
Mesa - 120 miles from border
Glendale - 120 miles from border
Scottsdale - 118 miles from border

So… Texas has precisely one of its top 5 cities that is closer to the border than ALL of Arizona’s top 5 cities.  What was West’s alleged point?