Wag the Dog -- Arizona style

Of course, I'm just speculating but I'm wondering, is it possible that the Arizona border and immigration drama is actually a contrived crisis to make political hay during an election year?

Here is some info pointing that direction:

It's one of the safest parts of America, and it's getting safer.

It's the U.S.-Mexico border, and even as politicians say more federal troops are needed to fight rising violence, government data obtained by The Associated Press show it actually isn't so dangerous after all.

The top four big cities in America with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso and Austin, according to a new FBI report. And an in-house Customs and Border Protection report shows that Border Patrol agents face far less danger than street cops in most US cities... ~ more in the Arizona Daily Star

This may be a classic example of the English idiom "wag the dog."