You can dress your opposition to the new Arizona immigration law up any way you want to, but if you're so all fired concerned about it, I suggest you move to the border towns that are under virtual siege by drug gangs and do your protesting there. The number of kidnappings and murders related to illegal crossings of the border have skyrocketed and the feds seem powerless to stop it.
It is a tough law for tough times, and under ordinary circumstances, would be seen as "draconian." But given the fact that it is impossible to delineate where the US border ends and where Mexico's begins in many places in that state, the right of sovereignty should rule.
Even the New York Times admits that the law basically calls for enforcement of existing statutes:
While police demands of documents are common on subways, highways and in public places in some countries, including France, Arizona is the first state to demand that immigrants meet federal requirements to carry identity documents legitimizing their presence on American soil.Ms. Brewer acknowledged critics' concerns, saying she would work to ensure that the police have proper training to carry out the law. But she sided with arguments by the law's sponsors that it provides an indispensable tool for the police in a border state that is a leading magnet of illegal immigration. She said racial profiling would not be tolerated, adding, "We have to trust our law enforcement."
Ms. Brewer and other elected leaders have come under intense political pressure here, made worse by the killing of a rancher in southern Arizona by a suspected smuggler a couple of weeks before the State Legislature voted on the bill. His death was invoked Thursday by Ms. Brewer herself, as she announced a plan urging the federal government to post National Guard troops at the border.
[...]
It requires police officers, "when practicable," to detain people they reasonably suspect are in the country without authorization and to verify their status with federal officials, unless doing so would hinder an investigation or emergency medical treatment.It also makes it a state crime - a misdemeanor - to not carry immigration papers. In addition, it allows people to sue local government or agencies if they believe federal or state immigration law is not being enforced.
President Obama is going to use this common sense law to push his version of immigration reform that won't do anything to stop the flood of illegals from crossing the border and will probably act as a catalyst for increased illegal immigration.
But it is interesting to note that a state law that only asks that existing law be enforced and followed is so violently opposed by the open borders crowd. Once again we have the spectacle of people demanding that the law of the land not be enforced, that we shouldn't be serious about illegal immigration.
Arizonians took care of that notion.
Share