PHOENIX – The real campaign for Governor of Arizona has started. Opponents of Don Goldwater have now accused him of planning “concentration camps.” LaVoz printed in its Spanish publications, and AZCentral disseminated yesterday this ludicrous and insidious charge.

It is absolutely outrageous that anyone, let alone a publication of the largest newspaper in the state, would cast the normal policies and procedures implemented by hundreds of correctional organizations throughout America as “concentration camps.” This denigration is a symptom of the paranoia by our opponents.

1. It has been a traditional and accepted practice for city, county, and state correctional institutions to direct inmates into work programs.

2. Also, as any informed person knows, the Maricopa County Sheriff has instituted a Tent City incarceration facility since the last century, in addition to work programs.

An organization that is supposed to disseminate news to the public should be ashamed to resort to such inaccurate, outlandish and inflammatory language against any candidate is onerous. To single out Don Goldwater for planning the implementation of these tried and true methods in this manner violates the principles fundamental to ethical reporting.

This underscores the simple truth that Goldwater is the front-runner in the Republican Primary and the only Republican candidate who has consistently polled within single figures against Governor Napolitano. It also reinforces and underscores the underlying bias in this media market and marginalizes their credibility in all areas.

Goldwater stated, “The Goldwater Reform Immigration Plan (GRIP) simply incorporates the tried and tested effective and accepted practices of other law enforcement and correctional professionals as a part of dealing with those who violate our immigration laws. Anything less would be unacceptable. These plans would only be implemented for CONVICTED non- violent felons who have gone through the American judicial processes.”

“Governor Napolitano has created our current problem through her inaction on the issue of illegal immigration by vetoing nine immigration bills that were presented to her by the legislature in the last two years. She has pandered and fiddled while Arizona is burning. My administration will consistently enforce the law against all criminals, regardless of legal status.”

Goldwater concluded, “I am appalled that I was not contacted by AZCentral prior to these charges being printed on the internet as if they were factual. I will not be deterred from protecting the citizens of Arizona from the impacts of the illegal invasion of our state by such scurrilous personal attacks.”