The 2010 Citizens Clean Elections Voter Education Guide: Constructing the “Illegal Immigrant” in the Arizona Voter

This “essay” (article) is a close and critical look at The 2010 Citizens Clean Elections Voter Education Guide, a document made available to the Arizona public prior to the 2010 state General elections. Though the guide is described as “a nonpartisan, plain-language handbook” by its authors, it can be implicated in the production and reproduction of a discursive process that further constructs a degraded notion of both undocumented individuals and immigration. Many of the politicians that published statements in the guide continually associate undocumented immigrants and immigration with both the use of firearms and with crime in general. Additionally, I find that the majority of politicians in this document perpetuate this demeaning, violent, and inaccurate discourse for personal political gain. In conclusion, I argue for the expanded role of education concerning the effects of discursive forces in the United States.