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That makes his campaign pretty confusing.

Hamadeh has defined himself as a candidate who wants to secure the Arizona-Mexico border against illegal crossings. But he is also the son of a when Hamadeh was born.

Court records from 1996 show that it was Abraham Hamadeh鈥檚 birth in Chicago, in 1991, that likely saved his father from deportation back to Syria. Hamadeh appears to be, in pejorative parlance, an 鈥渁nchor baby鈥� whose birth allowed his parents to stay in the country, despite being here illegally, and later become American citizens.

That鈥檚 fine with me, but is it OK with his supporters 鈥� or with him?

Hamadeh, a graduate of the UA law school, probably wouldn鈥檛 have won the Republican primary if he weren鈥檛 endorsed by Donald Trump on June 14. Hamadeh was just one candidate among six Republicans, some quite qualified, when Trump鈥檚 endorsement elevated him, leading him to win 34% of the Aug. 2 primary vote to second-place finisher Rodney Glassman鈥檚 24%.

The Donald Trump who made the difference for Hamadeh is, of course, the same Donald Trump who, when president, and for people like Hamadeh, the children of people in the country illegally.

This knot of seeming contradictions takes some effort to untangle. But it鈥檚 possible to pull a string here, undo a loop there and make some sense of the young candidate鈥檚 stands in the context of his personal story.

Overstays vs. border crossings

How, for example, could a man whose parents were in the country illegally when he was born demand that we 鈥減unish鈥� those crossing the Mexican border today, ? Would he want the same for his parents back in the day?

Part of the explanation, I suspect, is that some people think of those who overstay their visas as a different class of unauthorized resident. In fact, many times they are of a higher socioeconomic status 鈥� they were able, after all, to get a visa to enter the country.

But for decades, people who overstay their visas have also been a large proportion of the unauthorized population of the United States. In fact, , more people have overstayed their visas in the USA than have crossed our borders illegally.

Of course, it鈥檚 not as visible when a hundred separate visitors from, say, the Philippines, stay past the terms of their six-month visas as when a hundred Venezuelans cross the Mexico border in a group.

In the case of Hamadeh鈥檚 father, Jamal Hamadah (whose last name is spelled differently from his son鈥檚), he arrived in New York City on May 28, 1989, with permission to stay six months, till Nov. 27 that year, court documents show. Like millions of other foreign travelers, before and after him, he didn鈥檛 leave. Hamadah and his wife stayed, went into the jewelry business in Chicago and had two children who were American citizens by virtue of their birth.

The elder Hamadah was also criminally charged, then had charges dismissed, in an alarming crime: A conspiracy to fire-bomb a Chicago synagogue. I hesitate to mention that arrest, because the charges were dropped, others were convicted of the crime, and Hamadeh the candidate was three years old at the time. But those charges likely led to Hamadah鈥檚 later detention for immigration violations, as .

In May 1996, Hamadah filed a lawsuit demanding his release in part because he had two U.S. citizen children, one of them the current candidate for attorney general. He eventually won the right to stay.

Asked by the Arizona Republic about the situation, Hamadeh told the Phoenix newspaper in a statement: 鈥渕y parents proudly came to the United States LEGALLY in 1989 and were rewarded for waiting in line LEGALLY with U.S. citizenship in 2007 and 2009 by the United States Department of State.鈥�

In truth, his parents鈥� experience shows the messy reality of many families鈥� immigration cases, in which people live here in limbo and struggle to avoid deportation. Hamadeh鈥檚 parents were in the same gray area that millions of people live in who cross the border illegally, or who seek asylum and wait years for a decision to be made.

Syria to America

Now, one might also expect a son of Syrian immigrants to be less solicitous of Trump, who infamously stopped the resettlement of refugees from that country鈥檚 civil war in the United States and banned travel from the country. But of course Hamadeh鈥檚 family came to the USA 28 years before that happened, in a period of relative stability in Syria, at a midpoint in .

Hamadeh鈥檚 family was not civil war refugees like more recent arrivals here. Beyond that, Syria鈥檚 political system has long been an authoritarian one centered on the wishes of the dictator 鈥� now Bashar al-Assad, the son of the previous dictator 鈥� and his family. That鈥檚 not so unlike the Trump form of rule, or at least the one he aspired to.

So, even in a context of Syrian political culture, an alliance with Trump actually makes sense rather than being contradictory to recent events.

But the simplest explanation of all may simply be to ignore Hamadeh鈥檚 immigrant origins and view him as an American and a Republican who has evolved with the times. Hamadeh donated $250 to Jeff Flake鈥檚 campaign in 2012 and $1,000 in September 2017, when Flake was already hated by much of Arizona鈥檚 GOP base as a 鈥淩INO鈥� 鈥� Republican In Name Only.

In 2017, Hamadeh donated in September, shortly before Flake dropped out of the race for re-election 鈥� recognizing he could not win the primary 鈥� and, crucially, after Flake had published a book that was a sharp critique of Trumpism. Hamadeh still donated generously.

Four years later, Hamadeh was a candidate himself, in an Arizona GOP that had lurched further toward Trump. It probably shouldn鈥檛 be surprising that he went where the votes were, demanding harder-line border policies and claiming the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. (.)

Winning Trump鈥檚 endorsement also apparently involved a bit of trickery.

Hamadeh鈥檚 campaign finance records show that on March 21, 10 days before a quarterly campaign finance reporting deadline, Hamadeh鈥檚 brother Waseem loaned the campaign $1 million. As a result, Hamadeh鈥檚 March 31 campaign finance report showed a cash balance of about $1.1 million on March 31.

The campaign paid that $1 million back to Waseem Hamadeh on April 4, but the return of the loan wasn鈥檛 reflected until the July 15 campaign finance reports 鈥� a month after Abraham Hamadeh had won Trump鈥檚 endorsement. It looks like a clever maneuver, though Hamadeh has insisted it was completely innocent.

Hamadeh鈥檚 origins aside, he knew where the votes were in the Republican primary and how to win Trump鈥檚 favor.

Ironically, though, his success so far shows what new American families can achieve, even if they spend time in the country illegally, fighting deportation.