TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010

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ing improving sex education in schools, testing for infection in clinics and hospitals, and caring for the sick. The study was commissioned by the Washington AIDS Part- nership, which is an initiative of the Washington Regional Associ- ation of Grantmakers, and Kaiser Permanente. It is a suburban ver- sion of a 2005 critique of the Dis- trict’s response to HIV/AIDS. “We were able to provide a blueprint for action,” said Chan- ning Wickham, the partnership’s executive director. “We found that to be extremely successful. We are interested in funding next steps.”

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

Opponents of Arizona’s new immigration law protest outside the state Capitol in Phoenix. The parched grounds remained a staging area for both sides of the debate days after the measure was signed into law.

Both sides in immigration debate criticize Congress

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Even if Congress were to take

sive prosecution of illegal im- migrants, and officers can be sued if they do not enforce the law. Opponents are vowing a feder-

al lawsuit, and some Democrats are calling for an economic boy- cott of the state, drawing a rebuke from Republicans. Phoenix May- or Phil Gordon (D) said: “This is dividing our city and our state. It’s tearing us apart.” Avigil kept by opponents of the

new law stretched into another night, while former congressman J.D. Hayworth, a border security hawk, used the domed Capitol as a backdrop to file his formal pri- mary challenge against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). “Stop the hate,” read a hand- made sign carried by a Mexican- born U.S. citizen. “Silent no more,” said a sign carried by a transplant from Chi- cago who said he is fed up with Mexican immigrants. Brewer, who signed the bill Fri-

day, said the legislature had no choice but to assert itself in the absence of federal legislation ad- dressing the tide sweeping across her state. The long border with Mexico remains porous despite significant increases in patrols, and Arizona is home to about 450,000 illegal immigrants. “We in Arizona have been more

than patient waiting for Washing- ton to act,” Brewer said. “But dec- ades of federal inaction and mis- guided policy have created a dan- gerous and unacceptable situation.”

Obama criticized the Arizona

law and said he would ask the Justice Department to study it for potential civil rights violations. Yet he, too, acknowledged the past failure to grapple with the is- sue effectively, predicting “mis- guided efforts” in other states “if we continue to fail to act at the federal level.”

up reform, it remains hard to dis- cern which path would satisfy the opposing activists who gathered in the 90-degree heat. “The culture is being de- stroyed. You call anywhere, it’s ‘Push one for English, two for Spanish.’ All it does is make it eas- ier for people to live here once they sneak into the country” said Gary Arbitter, who supports the new law and carried the “Silent no more” sign.

Dentist Blaine Brimley agreed.

He said there has been too much fear-mongering and too little un- derstanding of the new law, which will go into effect in fewer than 90 days if no court blocks it. “I just saw a shirt that said ‘Shame on Arizona,’ ” he said, pro- testing that the state is simply strengthening its laws and en- forcing them. “They’re not going to do profiling. They’re only going to talk to people for traffic vio- lations or something else.” Obama, a former constitution-

al law professor who, as an Illi- nois state senator, helped pass a law prohibiting racial profiling, said Arizona’s policy threatens “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Amer- icans.” Yet supporters of the measure said Arizona Republicans — only one Republican voted against the bill; all Democrats opposed it — rightly stepped into a vacuum. “If [Obama] was doing his job, Arizona would not need to pass this law and Governor Brewer wouldn’t need to sign it,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immi- gration Reform. “This has been brewing in Arizona for some time.”

On that point, Melanie Nelson,

a leader of the Pima County In- terfaith Council, agreed. She op- poses the law and predicts nega- tive consequences, including

Officials across border denounce the new law

by William Booth

mexico city — President Fe-

lipe Calderón on Monday vigor- ously condemned a tough new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to question any- one who appears to be in the country illegally — a measure Calderón said “opens the door to intolerance and hatred.” Under the new law, signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) on Friday, legal immigrants will be required to carry documents proving their status. Police will question anyone they “reason- ably suspect” of being undocu- mented, and illegal immigrants could be detained and handed over to federal authorities. The law takes effect in 90 days. Brew- er said the costs of uncontrolled illegal immigration and the lack of enforcement by the federal government forced her state to act on its own. Mexican officials reacted with

swift and near-universal condem- nation, warning that the law could harm trade, tourism and bi- lateral relations. The U.S.-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, with approximately 350 million crossings per year. Daily two-way movement of goods amounts to about $1 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Mexico’s health minister, José

Ángel Córdova, who is widely credited with stemming the glob- al spread of swine flu, called it “a discriminatory law, abominable for us.” José Guadalupe Osuna Millán,

the governor of the Mexican state of Baja California, which abuts California, warned that the law “could disrupt the indispensable

economic, political and cultural exchanges of the entire border re- gion.”

A senator and a leader of the center-right National Action Par- ty, Josefina Vázquez Mota, said the Arizona law would mean “the criminalization of all Mexicans.” Calderón called the Arizona

law “a violation of human rights” and promised it would be at the top of his agenda when he comes to Washington in May to meet with President Obama, who has called the Arizona measure “mis- guided.”

Calderón said he was instruct-

ing Mexico’s foreign ministry and consulates in the United States to organize and work with a net- work of lawyers to defend the rights of Mexicans. Top officials in Mexico are usu- ally publicity shy about U.S. legis- lation. They have been quietly pushing for sweeping federal im- migration reform, which would include a path to legal residency, but they speak a vague diplo- matic language that calls for “re- spect” and “dignity” for illegal migrants, while pointing out their contributions to both the U.S. and Mexican economies. Mexicans working abroad sent home last year more than $20 bil- lion, the country’s second leading source of foreign capital after oil sales.

Calderón acknowledged that his citizens went north because Mexico lacks opportunity, and that immigration should be reg- ulated. But he also said, “It would be difficult to imagine the growth and prosperity of the United States in the 20th century with- out the contributions of Mexican workers.”

boothw@washpost.com

Wickham said the study was done because “it’s alarming when you don’t know what you don’t know.” Although the partnership grants about $1 million a year for HIV/AIDS efforts, few nonprofit groups in Virginia and Maryland apply, Wickham said. “We’re not giving grades, like a

harm to businesses and employ- ers and a decline in police cooper- ation from worried immigrants. Citing a recent poll that showed support for the law, she said: “People are very frustrated. There’s even more tension be- cause there’s nothing happening at the federal level.”

Outside the Capitol, Ross Can- yon addressed a group of young protesters chanting “Sí, se puede,” or “Yes, we can,” the motto of the United Farm Workers. That slo- gan was later adopted by reform- ers who favor a path to citizen- ship for the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. “People don’t like the idea that they will be stopped and carded because of their skin color,” said Canyon, a Navajo born in Ari- zona. “I’ve had the sheriff stop me, and I’m not from the other side of the border.”

Alfonso Garnica, who wore the “Stop the hate” sandwich board, predicted that police, already overburdened, would resort to profiling and called on the federal government to step in. “They’re going to start messing with us, pulling us over and ask- ing for ID. We don’t like that,” Garnica, an unemployed driver, said. “We’re going to have to fight it until we get rid of it.”

slevinp@washpost.com

report card,” he said. “We’re try- ing to provide more information and get people talking.” The jurisdictions in the study were Montgomery, Prince George’s, Arlington, Fairfax, Lou- doun and Prince William coun- ties, as well as the cities of Alex- andria, Fairfax, Falls Church and Manassas.

Some local and state officials took issue with some of the find- ings.

Dale Schacherer, Montgom-

ery’s program manager for HIV client services, said the county has put significant resources into treating and fighting the disease. “Montgomery County has, from the beginning, been really out front,” he said. “Montgomery is a county of a million people, and yet our infection rate is much lower than in the District. It’s really comparing apples and or- anges.”

Schacherer agreed on the need for more testing and prevention. “Testing needs to become a main- stream issue and needs to be something that patients are asked to opt out of, rather than opt into. It needs to be routine, basically.” Elaine Martin, director of HIV prevention for Virginia, said the

A5

Suburbs trail D.C. in fighting AIDS, study says

AIDS in the D.C. area

Almost half of the people living with AIDS in the Washington region are in the suburbs. A new study says that local governments aren’t coordinating their efforts and that approaches to combating the disease are spotty.

LOUDOUN CO.

MONTGOMERY CO.

VIRGINIA

ARL. CO.

FAIRFAX CO.

WILLIAM CO. PRINCE

Distribution in the Washington area

Maryland suburbs

Virginia suburbs

District

28% 18

54

NOTE: Fairfax also includes the cities of Falls Church and Fairfax. Prince William includes the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

SOURCE: Mosaica: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism TOBEY/THE WASHINGTON POST

D.C.

Alex.

PRINCE GEORGE’S CO.

Prevalence rate for residents living with AIDS per 100,000 people

(as of Dec. 31, 2008)

MAR YLAND

MARYLAND 293.1 Prince George’s 379.1 Montgomery 178.9

VIRGINIA 122.5 Alexandria 462.9 Arlington 341.5 Prince William

Fairfax 114.2 Loudoun 39.3

District 1,598.1

124.5

study’s characterization of the state’s efforts are unfair. “We do look at regional data on a regular basis,” she said. Martin said that more needs to be done but that low federal funding creates a challenge. “The entire state gets less fund- ing than the District of Colum- bia,” Martin said. “I don’t think they have an unfair level of fund- ing. Their positive rate is much higher than Virginia’s. But in some cases, Virginia is under- funded.” Heather Hauck, director of the

Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, also cited low federal funding. The District produces an HIV/ AIDS epidemiology update each year. Despite having one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in- fection in the nation, the city is on its way to becoming a model of aggressive prevention. In the past three years, it has issued millions of condoms citywide, created a sex education curriculum, and of- fered tests for sexually transmit- ted diseases for all public high school and some charter school students. Maryland and Virginia pro-

duce HIV/AIDS studies every five years, the study says, a federal re- quirement. But because of the relative infrequency of reports from the suburbs, it is difficult to assess the scale of problems there, the study says. Virginia’s most recent report was complet- ed in 2007 using data from 2005. The study issued Tuesday faults Maryland’s and Virginia’s efforts to reach out to at-risk resi- dents who do not visit clinics reg- ularly. Virginia has no marketing campaigns urging prevention, and Maryland has few.

Some suburban school dis-

tricts have refused to allow con- doms in schools, and parents in Montgomery filed a lawsuit against the schools to stop some aspects of sex education, the study said. “In many jurisdictions,” McKay

said, “teachers are visibly uncom- fortable talking about sex. If it’s going to change, parents in those jurisdictions would have to get involved with the schools.”

fearsd@washpost.com

Staff writers Christy Goodman, Derek Kravitz and Michael Laris contributed to this report.

 Petula Dvorak: D.C. suburbs must realize that AIDS crisis is close to home. B1

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