The passage of the Arizona immigration law and recent May Day protests have been weighing heavily on my mind. As a “Latino,” the circumstances of my heritage have no effect on my opinions with respect to this new law, though this may make many liberals very angry. They expect me to vote my skin color and forgo careful analysis. I am glad to disappoint them. As an American, I find this law to be somewhat worrisome. To start, the continual influx of illegal immigrants and the exploitation of our broken borders by international criminal elements may eventually lead to the collapse of the United States as a sovereign nation. This is not fear-mongering, this is fact. If we allow for an indefinite multitude of people to cross our borders and reside illegally in the US, then our country will collapse under the weight of the social and economic strain of their presence (I will get into this more in depth some other time). It is of paramount import that we, as a nation, get a grip on this problem before it is too late. That said, I worry over the possible consequences of the Arizona immigration law.
I am not one of those who immediately dismiss this as a machination of the xenophobic far right since I am keenly aware of the ticking time-bomb that the immigration problem poses. What I offer here are my thoughts and/or suggestions as to how best this law can serve the citizens of Arizona and ultimately all Americans. If the Arizona law leads to widespread civil rights violations and requires all citizens to carry proof of citizenship everywhere, then this law cannot stand. This is what opponents of the law, ranging from liberal to libertarian, charge that will come to be. I am not so sure. On the first count, racial profiling, one needs only to look at the demographic make-up of Arizona to realize that it would be practically impossible to implement such a policy. Arizona’s population is more than 30% of Latino origin which means that if the authorities decided to detain people on the basis of race then they would flood their police departments, sheriffs’ offices, and prisons with legal and illegal Latino-looking people. Not to mention that this practice would be wrong and would lead to a total breakdown of trust between the community and the authorities. This would be a nightmare scenario. When people say that racial profiling will be the norm, they can rest assured that the countless lawsuits brought against a racist police force will put an end to this law exceedingly quickly. This is why I do not think that Arizona will opt for a race-based rationale for determining “suspicion.”
The second count is more possible, but from my reading of the law it seems that Arizona citizens are not explicitly expected to carry around proof of citizenship at all times. Federal law already requires that non-citizens carry around proof of their legal status, so this law simply allows state authorities to enforce this law. The problem is with regular US citizens who are not required to carry such documents and whether or not they will be unreasonably searched. This problem is trickier. The only solution to such a problem is to concretely define what constitutes “reasonable suspicion” and to carefully train law enforcement so that they follow such criteria very, very closely. No police department will want to have to suspend or fire officers that violate citizen’s rights, not the mention the inevitable lawsuits that would immediately follow such a violation. On another note, a government requirement that we carry identification documents everywhere we go would be outright un-American.
But these are all big ifs that depend on how the law is enforced. While these are probably the biggest negatives, the positives are immediately clear: giving law enforcement more tools in helping rein in illegal immigration, penalizing companies that hire illegal immigrants, and filling in where the federal government refuses to do its job. Just last Friday, a suspected drug trafficker shot an Arizona deputy with an AK-47 assault rifle. How did they get into the country with these weapons? Why should we keep our borders unguarded if this is the threat that exists? With Mexico’s drug war raging south of the border, it makes no sense to continue our present “porous-borders” policy for two reasons: 1) we are the primary market for the Mexican drug cartels and 2) this violence could easily spill over into the United States. We already see some of the effects of the Mexican drug war on our own soil, with Phoenix becoming the city with the second highest number of people kidnapped in the world behind (surprise!) Mexico City. As of yet, the actual drug violence seems to have kept mostly to itself in Mexico, but leaving the door wide open for them is not making us any safer.
The liberal response to the Arizona law was the usual high-pitched shrieking about the law’s supporters being xenophobes, racists, Nazis, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not surprisingly, the president had negative things to say about the law which is in itself ironic given that Arizona stood up specifically because Washington has repeatedly laid down when it comes to securing our borders. The reality is that everyone is hurt by illegal immigration, from the Hispanic communities that become havens for Latin American gangs to working people’s wages that are depressed by the large pool of unskilled laborers. We need a sane and orderly immigration policy so that when new, legal arrivals get here there will still exist an America where their dreams can come true.
-AG
Original Post: NeoRepublica
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Matt
I believe that future generations should have the same opportunities that myself, and those that came before me, had. My parents taught me that I could do anything I wanted to do. I don’t want to have to tell my daughter, “You can do whatever the government tells you to do.” We are at a crossroads in this country; are we going to be free, or are we going to be slaves to the nanny state. I choose freedom.
Baloney. The only reason to enact this unconstitutional law is to intimidate the legal, registered voters who just may vote out the bigots in the republican party. Hispanics generally vote democrat, thus a law to piss them off and make them move elsewhere. Any fool can see that.
That’s seriously all you have? It’s not even worth the time.
I find you, to borrow a phrase, intellectually vacant. You provide nothing in terms of a substantive refutation, and I am sorry, baloney doesn’t count. Try engaging in an objective investigation without your obvious predilection towards leftist ideology and a falsely infused indignation. You throw the term, “unconstitutional,” around as if you are actually intimate with the term. Have you actually read the bill and compared it to either the U.S. Constitution, or Arizona’s? I think not, so spare me your simplism. Apologize for wasting my time.
I stand apart from my Libertarian brethren and submit that the violations of civil rights is inevitable, as represented in the above article, (partially extracted below) is an oversimplification by those who hold this ideal.
“If the Arizona law leads to widespread civil rights violations and requires all citizens to carry proof of citizenship everywhere, then this law cannot stand.”
As a Libertarian (which I am), you maintain the premise of maximizing individual rights by respecting and advocating the same on an interindividual level. Illegal aliens, by their very nature, create a fiscal deficit because of their low income earnings. In an immigration report from Steven A. Camarota;
“Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.
“The costs outlined in the report include government services such as Medicaid, medical treatment for the uninsured, food assistance programs, the federal prison and court systems, and federal aid to schools.
“The report estimates that granting legal status to illegal immigrants would dramatically increase their cost, causing the net fiscal deficit to rise to nearly $29 billion because, the author argues, unskilled immigrants would have access to more government services while continuing to make modest tax payments.”
The deficit created by illegal immigrants will have to be made up by other taxpayers, which will be forcefully done via increased taxation. If you are a Libertarian and you align yourself with the ethic of self-responsibility, oppose welfarism, then you must reasonably conclude that coercing someone to provide charity is ethically wrong. To be forced to pay extra in taxes (however large or small), for those that engaged in a criminal act to procure said services, is equivalent to theft of property. If you are Libertarian, you must recognize this as fact.
Well call me a fool then… Because I don’t see what you are saying at all Mark. Matt has produced some excellent information on this blog regarding this topic and Conservative Teacher pointed out that the Arizona law simply allows state authorities to enforce the Federal law. So what exactly is unconstitutional? Or are you just repeating what you hear from the MSM?
Excellent unbiased, non-bigoted assessment of the facts Conservative Teacher.
All the Illegals should be deported!
Great post CT, if the gov’t did its’ job, AZ wouldn’t of had to do it for them.
Hey everyone! AG wrote this. There is an alphabetical pull down menu to indicate who wrote the post. I accidentally hit A Conservative Teacher rather than AG.
My apologies.
Great post AG. Given your perspective and research, you demolished the left’s arguments on this law completely.
“If the Arizona law leads to widespread civil rights violations and requires all citizens to carry proof of citizenship everywhere, then this law cannot stand.”
Why do you say this? Years ago, Americans had to carry draft cards, and we’ve had to carry drivers licenses. It is ludicrous to treat carrying proof of citizenship as a hardship. We are a spoiled nation of children if anyone thinks this.
Well said. That, and I think federal law requires legal residents to carry documentation as well.
Por mas gente vives aqui es necessario por sus hablas ingles. Ok. I speak terrible Spanish and write even worse. Even if I looked like a Mexican (however that is supposed to look) I could never pass as a native in Mexico. If stopped by the police in Mexico for whatever reason, the police might become suspicious of my citizenship. If I could prove it, no problem. If I could not prove it, possible problem.
This whole subject gets blown up faster than buildings in a bomb strike. Use your brains and not your heart. There will be abuses, sure there will. We know of 10-12 million of them now. We call them illegal immigrants. Duh! The Arizona law asks for nothing unreasonble except for those with an Amnesty or other liberal agenda. If you are not illegal the laws will protect you and if you are illegal the law protects you even more: It just makes you leave which you should do.
Now before you say I don’t care about the plight of the immigrants, just know you don’t know me. I travel and spend my money in Mexico, Costa Rica, and other Hispanic countries. I abide by their laws and I love the people and their cultures. I help in everyway I can and I have a dear friend who is an Illegal Mexican Immigrant. Yes! My friend. Mi Amigo no tienes documentes. Where I live the Police cannot arrest him because of weak laws. If it were possible I would have him sent home and come back legally. But, because of all the “Illegals” it is impossible to get and new “Legal” visas. Get it.
Laws are not generally bad for the law abiding but for the unlawful persons. Unlawful immigrants have created the need for many laws. Notice I did not say Mexicans. America is full of Illegal Immigrants. Mexicans are just making the headlines and a word of caution. The more ruckus is put up on Illegal Immigration, the more Lawful citizens will dig in their heels. Mark it down. Vamanos before you can’t ever legally return here. It is coming and you don’t want to be caught in the US without authority.
Such are my ramblings. Now I wish someone would send that Illegal aunt of Obama back to Kenya. She is still in public housing, on the dole, and waiting her fate. Barry? Barry? Can you hear me? Barry?
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The passage of the Arizona immigration law and recent May Day protests have been weighing heavily on my mind. As a Latino, the circumstances of my heritage…