Whose Power Is It?
Sunday, April 25, 2010
United States immigration policy has long been formed at the federal level, with Congress and the president setting the agenda. The state of Arizona, however, just passed a bill giving local law enforcement authority over immigration and illegal immigrants. Under the new bill, which Governor Jan Brewer signed into law on Friday, it will be a state crime for illegal immigrants to be in Arizona; more than that, all immigrants will have to carry their “alien registration documents” at all times. The new bill also gives local law enforcement the power to ask people about their immigration status if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that those persons are undocumented.
Critics of the law claim it will lead to racial profiling. Anyone who appears as though they are not a natural born American citizen can be asked to prove their citizenship. And the most obvious way of guessing whether one might be a citizen or an alien? Ethnicity, of course. So perhaps these fears aren’t entirely unfounded. It seems clear that certain people will be stopped and questioned more than others.
One cannot entirely blame Arizona for taking a step towards combating the influx of illegal immigrants. Arizona does have the right to protect its borders against illegal immigration. And like any state, Arizona pays many costs for housing illegal aliens. Given that federal action against the illegal immigration problem has fallen by the wayside as a result of the financial crisis and conflicts abroad, it makes sense that Arizona chose to try and solve the issue on its own.
It seems, however, that there are still issues to work out regarding this legislation. Many question the law’s constitutionality by arguing that only the federal government has authority over immigration. Furthermore, with claims that the law will lead to racial profiling, regulations and oversight mechanisms need to be put into place to prevent such profiling—which maybe impossible, given the subject and the law. At this point, however, it’s up to the courts to decide. Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon has already promised to take the law to court, where a judge can decide whether states have any authority over immigration.
SARAH WENTZ
1 comments:
Arizona can pass race base laws, pass Birthers laws and the state can continue to boycott Martin Luther King Day, well the rest of the Country can boycott the state of Arizona and spank them where it hurts them the most their pocket book. Their phony patriotism is sickening, they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat War profiteering contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.
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