Holder’s ‘In the Dark’ Criticism of Immigration Law
On May 13, Attorney General Eric Holder, who had been critical of the new Arizona immigration law, testified that he had based his comments on newspaper and television accounts but had not read the by then more than two-week-old statute:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been critical of Arizona’s new immigration law, said Thursday he hasn’t yet read the law and is going by what he’s read in newspapers or seen on television.
Mr. Holder is conducting a review of the law, at President Obama’s request, to see if the federal government should challenge it in court. He said he expects he will read the law by the time his staff briefs him on their conclusions.
“I’ve just expressed concerns on the basis of what I’ve heard about the law. But I’m not in a position to say at this point, not having read the law, not having had the chance to interact with people are doing the review, exactly what my position is,” Mr. Holder told the House Judiciary Committee. (emphasis added)
The Arizona statute was signed by the governor on April 23 and amended on April 30 by HB 2162 to remove ambiguities relating to when people can be stopped and identification sought. It was also clarified to ease concerns about profiling based on race, color, or national origin.
The partial text of the law as amended is provided in the previous link, along with links to the remaining parts. Section 11-1051 B, about which there has been much erroneously focused anger is below. (Words deleted are indicated by strike-throughs and words added are in bold:
For any lawful contact stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation. Any person who is arrested shall have the person’s immigration status determined before the person is released. The person’s immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 United States code section 1373(c). A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not solely consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution. A person is presumed to not be an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States if the person provides to the law enforcement officer or agency any of the following:
1. A valid Arizona driver license.
2. A valid Arizona nonoperating identification license.
3. A valid tribal enrollment card or other form of tribal identification.
4. If the entity requires proof of legal presence in the United States before issuance, any valid United States federal, state or local government issued identification.
On May 10:
Attorney General Holder, reflecting similar comments from the president, worried that the law would create “a slippery slope where people will be picked on because of how they look as opposed to what they have done.”
If the law is applied as written, that simply cannot be the case. Also on May 10:
“We are considering all of our options. One possibility is filing a lawsuit,” Holder told NBC‘s Meet the Press. Possible grounds for the lawsuit would be whether the Arizona law could lead to civil rights violations, he said.
There have been widespread boycotts and more are apparently in the offing. Hollywood has gone ballistic. There have been protests in Honduras and throughout Latin America, where the new Arizona law has been widely denounced:
The South American presidents that signed the declaration included Brazil’s Luiz Inacio “Lula” Da Silva; Uruguay’s Jose Mujica; Ecuador’s Rafael Correa; Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo; Chile’s Sebastian Pinera; Bolivia’s Evo Morales; Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez; and Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez. Foreign ministers represented by Peru, Colombia, Surinam and Guyana also co-signed the declaration.
The Organization of American States has also denounced the law.
That well regarded friend of human rights, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, has demanded that it be repealed. In Oakland, California:
City Council members voted 7-0 Tuesday to boycott Arizona and Arizona-based businesses, joining a growing movement against the state after it passed a far-reaching anti-illegal immigration law. …
“How do you know if someone is illegal?” said City Council President Jane Brunner (North Oakland). “They can’t answer that question in Arizona. Is it when someone’s in a coffee shop? Is it when they’re walking their child to school? Is it when they’re standing on the corner waiting for work?”
The Arizona law, the full text of which is linked above, deals with these matters. Ms. Brunner would be well advised to read it.
Mr. Holder was, of course, under no obligation to read the statute as originally written or as amended, nor was he under any obligation to speak publicly about it. However, for him to speak publicly and critically about the bill without having bothered to read it, and base his critique only on the basis of newspaper and television reports — most likely by people who had not bothered to read it either — was extraordinarily irresponsible. It was doubly so because the new Arizona law deals with problems created in a border state by the abject failure of the federal government to enforce the law, and seeks, to the extent possible, to fill the vacuum created by that failure.
Mr. Holder is not the only government official with a penchant for commenting adversely on statutes and judicial decisions without having bothered to read them. He stands out because he is the official chief attorney of the United States. Obviously, his words on legal matters have more clout than those of any other administration official, except perhaps the president, whose lead he apparently follows and who had not bothered to read the new law either. Or, if he had read it, ignored what it says and chose to engage on his own now common form of racial profiling to create political capital with it.
There may be excuses for members of the Congress to avoid reading lengthy and complex legislation before voting on it. I don’t accept those excuses, but understand them because a lot of legislation is difficult to read and even more difficult to understand. The largely unread health insurance reform law is a prime example, and despite Speaker Pelosi’s flippant comment that we would know what was in it after it had been passed and signed, we continue to read of unanticipated and possibly unintended consequences. The same is true of the “we gotta save the economy quick!” bailout legislation, and the same will most likely be true of the Wall Street reform legislation and climate change legislation.
If our masters can’t be bothered to read even short and reasonably understandable laws such as the Arizona immigration law before commenting and helping to set the media aflame about them, and can’t be bothered to read legislation before voting on it and signing it into law, perhaps they should strive for shorter and less complex legislation instead of trying to deal with all perceived problems simultaneously in massive and massively confusing legal morasses.
“If our masters can’t be bothered to read even short and reasonably understandable laws…”
Objection: They are NOT our masters. They are public SERVANTS with limited powers of office. Abuse of those powers and/or neglect of duty to the American people whom they serve are the tricky bit.
Of course they should not be not our masters; they apparently think they are, behave as though they are, and seem to be viewed by many as though they are. They need to be disabused of these misconceptions lest they become irreversible realities.
No, the tricky bit is making half the country understand that we must throw off the government masters. The tricky bit is making people reject a handout in favor of a principle. How do you do that?
PUblic servants, limited powers..exactly who are you talking about??? Surely not Obama and his gang.. They are treating America as their personal cesspool. limited powers?? they are limiting our powers…. I understand what you are saying, it would be nice if that were the way things were managed here. We have China reprimanding us and us apologizing for AZ.. puke!!
Freebies, over morals and ethics, seem to rule these days. Obama’s auntie just got special emigration dealings…
The tax cheats Obama hired were unwilling and unable to read the suggestions included with their tax returns. Holder is just a little retarded.
Seven, calling Mr. Holder retarded is highly offensive to mentally challenged people. I prefer to refer to him as F*$ktarded.
Holder is just another tint of Waxman. Arrogant snobs.
The end result is that they have no case. Their motive all along is about the Democrat voting machine. Nothing more. Ridiculous.
One unfortunate thing is that federal cases arising in Arizona are appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which may be ideologically opposed to the new immigration law.
“May” is optimistic.
On the contrary:The 9th,after being stung by the Muehler v Mena case,have pretty much rubber stamped all of Arizona’s previous immigration laws. Arizona’s prop 200 had the same arguments thrown at it and first,District court judge James Munley and then the 9th let 200 go through in record time.
Obama and his ilk lie. When caught in the lie, they lie some more, while they destroy the ethical and moral fabric of America.
But hey, those who voted for Obama to proove they are not racists or that are so uber cool, I just wish to personally thank you.
You have ruined America. And that is no lie.
These Are Our Leaders?
Leadership has been defined as “a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.”
We look to our leaders and others in authority to show us the way, to inspire and to motivate whether on a national, state, or local level and in our daily lives. Everyone can’t be a leader; with all chiefs and no braves, we would have chaos so those who assume the mantle of leadership have a unique obligation to show the way.
What we have in America today is a dearth of true leaders, a crisis of leadership in that many of our leaders seemingly haven’t the foggiest notion of what their responsibilities are and how to fulfill them. They may be accomplishing their narrow personal goals but they all but ignore their broader national leadership mandates.
They don’t know how to lead.
A prime case in point is our attorney general,. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1682)
I have taken it upon myself to send the text of the law to as many politicians as I can find who have been ignorantly (or, more likely, deliberately) distorting the law in their public pronouncements. I urge other readers to do the same. These politicians think we are stupid. Let’s make it hard for them to hold on to their contempt for us. On second thought, they will never give up their contempt, but let’s at least let them know we are on to them.
Ignorance of the law is a terrible thing to see in the Attorney General….
But then, Geithner can’t do his taxes correctly (or use Turbotax correctly)….
Different rules for the serfs, and the masters.
Holder’s admission that he NEVER read the law, yet deigned it ‘undemocratic’, is proof positive that political agenda trumps actual law – even for the chief law enforcement officer!
Leftists operate under a group-think paradigm,coupled with their elitist notion that they know what is best for the ‘common’ masses.Therefore, it is no biggie for them to express an ‘authoritative’ opinion, without even knowing the context of what they are basing it on.Imagine that.
There is nothing more dangerous than a person whose arrogance supplants both the rule of law and an honest assessment of the facts at hand.
BHO and his gang of radical leftists are insatiable control freaks, there is nothing beyond their pale.Nothing.
We knew that Holder had no respect for the law when he decided to free couple of Black Panthers, who had been convicted of blocking access to a voting booth.
In a liberals world, the only crime is not being a liberal.
As the sage once opined, ya can’t make this crap up folks!
America has dug itself in a hole the size of a dark hole with this Administration. Never in my over 70 years have things in the White House be so out of touch with reality. I am not sure we can overcome this idiot and his Administration.
It appears that there will be a special on Fox News this evening about the Obama Administration’s recent apologies to China concerning the new Arizona immigration law. I wonder whether the new law, or Attorney General Holder’s scholarly interpretation of it, has been translated into Chinese.
My 85 year old mother said today that she never in her life time thought she would see our country in such a disgraceful vulnerable position in the world, and she’s lived through a lot.
America’s in retreat due in great part, to people of the present administration. It’s them and the constant “inattention” that Americans pay to politics until it’s almost too late.
As of late it appears to be America vs the “entire world”…and we’re not in a good position thanks to our leaders, i.e. holder, obama.. Obama must be so proud,seriously, he is destroying in short order what took so many years and so many lives to achieve.
Holder is merely a product of what we have allowed to happen.
Holder is merely a product of what we have allowed to happen. (emphasis added)
Quoted for truth and please try to remember it this November and in 2012.
Iss he really that dumb, or does he think that we are that dumb. Honestly, he seems like such a dunce.
This just in. Janet Napolitano from Arizona on the way to cause havoc in D.C. also admits to having strong adverse opinions of the bill and getting them from NOT reading the bill. She really looked stupid telling McCain from AZ that it was a bad bill and she couldn’t pin down why.
She knows who the terrorists will be but has been wrong every time.
When it comes to November 2010/2012, remember what Nixon said in ’68: “This time, vote like your whole world depended on it.” Because it does.
Many United States Attorneys Generals have been political hacks, but never has one been so easily and blatantly exposed as such. For the good of the country, Eric Holder should resign. This means, of course, he will cling to the bitter end along with a boss who should do us all a favor and admit he, too, is in over his head.
He is lying. He HAS read it, and much to his chagrin found it to be fully constitutional. However since Zero wants to ram immigration through to buy votes Holder cannot say that there is nothing wrong with the Arizona law. So the least damaging thing is to say he has not read it. He is lying.
Seems like the intellectually challenge Attorney General ‘Muslims what Muslims I see no Muslims”leave those nice Black Panthers alone”I haven’t read it but I KNOW its RACIST’ ‘WHITE Policemen are STUPID’ Holder is being perfectly consistent in not reading ARIZONA’s ILLEGAL Immigrant Law as it appears he has not read OKLAHOMA’s TWO YEAR old ILLEGAL Immigrant Law either.
So how then do we explain the fact that The BOGUS POTUS the inept, RACIST, useless Attorney General the pathetic lapdog ‘lame stream ‘ Media the DEMS and all the other the left wing Islamophile moonbats in general are up in arms over ARIZONA’s Law and have not said a peep about OKLAHOMA’s arguably more DRACONIAN Law.
Well it doesn’t fit the template for action NOW and OKLAHOMA’s Law can be PROVED to be working so why draw attention to that INCONVENIENT TRUTH.
“There may be excuses for members of the Congress to avoid reading lengthy and complex legislation before voting on it. I don’t accept those excuses, but understand them because a lot of legislation is difficult to read and even more difficult to understand.”
The problem stems from the laws being written so the common citizen can’t understand them; how to follow a law you don’t understand?? Yet, ignorance of the law is no excuse. All laws should be written as the Declaration and Constitution have been written, in plain everyday speech, so anyone could read and understand. Legalese needs to be removed, all this does is benefit the lawyers. Why do we keep electing lawyers to governement positions in the first place? They do not (most of them at least) understand the every day workings of a middle class citizen, don’t understand their hardships. We need to start electing business owners who understand daily economics, and what everyday Americans have to struggle through to make ends meet.
Holder is just following his messiah’s lead, you don’t have to have all the facts to have an opinion, although I prefer an informed opinion myself, those in the government obviously feel they are above us and by knowing a small portion combined with their elitism makes them smarter and able to form a much better opinion than I could with all the facts.
What bothers me is these people who blithely protest without thinking. To me, these people who don’t want to enforce FED law must be agreeable to: Human Trafficking, human slavery, the beating, rape and even murder of those who are transported across the borders. These people must be condoning the various ranchers and citizens who live in border counties in AZ,TX, NM who have been murdered, robbed and had their property trashed from all the traversing up from the south. I personally feel assaulted by these people who don’t fully get what non-enforcement of the FED immigration law means. I am appalled by the city council in Albuquerque for considering a boycott of Arizona. I am appalled by those who don’t even live in this country who are saying boycott AZ. I notice these are the countries who have illegals flocking here because of the tyranny and abuse and actual slavery that goes on in their countries. It is also incredible that we are hearing little, if anything about the Oklahoma immigration law. Holder isn’t raising hell over that. Quite honestly, I’m rather edgy about what summer brings. Living in the part of the country where most of this border craziness is going on and knowing what has happened for years along the border, having lived the discrimination of not being the right race or religion to obtain employment(most the time), etc, I can’t being to explain to you the apprehension, the feeling like all hell is on the verge of happening. If you don’t live in the SW and know about the crap going on, and if people aren’t informed, then we are essentially doomed. I have no faith in my elected leaders in DC, they barely show up to promote some candidate for a state post. They sure don’t come down here and talk to the regular people about border security. Makes me feel like we are the shit under their shoe.
You know that they say: ‘When you assume…” So why is it that the top law enforcement officer in the nation is trying to make an ass out of you and me?
Remember who hired this hack of an AG . . . for it is in the selection of strong, informed, flexible, good judgement advisors that the strength of the executive branch of our government is contained. Get a HACK for POTUS . . . Get worse than HACK for advisors.
It’s telling that the Organization of American States as well as the left leaning leaders of so many South & Central American countries have decided to get all hot and bothered about Arizona.
Likewise the venues where we are getting ‘boycott’ sound bites; an awful lot of public posturing. So what if the city council’s of San Diego, Seattle, Oakland & La La LA have informed their public union employees that they can’t visit AZ and expect to get paid to do so?
What is the major difference? Well Mexico and it’s partners in illegal immigration crime to the south have been feeling the pinch of a lot less ‘foreign aid’ by way of dollars sent home via the working population here. And they’ve been feeling it for several years now.
As far as the calls for boycotts domestically – those doing so identify themselves in this debate as sanctuary venues. Arizonians like myself look forward to the skittish ‘undoc’s’ who are today living in ‘the shadows’ here -with our down economy & now the added ‘brutality’ of Sheriff Joe’s posses out on the daily human rights violation parade – taking up these City Councils on their invitation for the mass exodus into their welcoming arms.
AS the old polish-american polka says – ‘we don’t want em/you can have em’/their to [expensive] FAT for …’
I find this interesting – Holder gathers his information (and opinion?) of the Arizona law from the MSM.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the MSM usually take their lead from Obama et al?
Clearly – in such an informational circle jerk there can be no exchange of ‘real’ information allowed to enter. The mental masturbations continue.
Equating the new Arizona immigration law to blatant human rights abuses in China, even if the new law were as the Obama Administration erroneously, and I am coming to believe maliciously, claims, is far over the top. Yet that seems to be what’s happening.
Where do these people come from? Can’t they just go back?
Since the end of the so-called fairness doctrine is now being blamed for the Arizona law, perhaps they could find some more congenial place where there is a “fairness doctrine” — Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and a bunch more come quickly to mind.
I really do my best to be civil, so the only descriptive words which I can use are “rabidly destructive jerks.” Others may have some better words.
I can only wish that Obama’s Holder was being honest when he said he didn’t have time to read the Arizona law. Unfortunately, for us, he is as dismissive as his boss and could not be bothered. We, the people, are irrelevant. It’s a very sad state of affairs when one trick pony race baiting agitators conclude that only non whites can be breaking the law.
I simply cannot believe those American citizens that still can’t see what the governments attitude is towards their welfare, their quality of life, and even their right to have democracy. This administration like the past seven or eight, yes, including Reagan, couldn’t care less about the American worker taxpayer, citizen, on any level. They want open borders and the fate of Americans to be left in the hands of the same banks and Wall Street criminals, that have brought this country to its needs. DON’T AMERICANS GET IT YET?!! It isn’t about republicans, democrats, greens, or whatever other side issue you care to make it. IT’S ABOUT OPEN BORDERS AND THE ELIMINATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS WE KNOW IT. Why do people think that the administration is fighting Arizona tooth and nail. They know that the states are aware of what the administration is up to and they are, for the most part, ready to fight for their freedom. LONG LIVE ARIZONA, LONG LIVE THE BORDERS OF AMERICA, AND NO AMNESTY OR ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, OR ANY OTHER METHOD OF ALLOWING THE FEDS TO OPEN THE BORDER PERMANENTLY.
SUPPORT ARIZONA!
PRODUCTS TO BUY FROM ARIZONA: http://www.examiner.com/x-35976-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m4d29-Seven-Arizonabased-products-to-buy
I just listened to C-Span (I know, I know). My Representative, John Carter along with someone from Utah (whose name I didn’t get)were discussing the problems of our open borders. I was in agreement all the way. He even said our border should be SEALED – whoopee! But in the next breath, he wimped out like so many and said…”and then we need to have a sensible policy for…”I switched the channel because I knew what he was going to suggest. Why can’t someone just say, “let’s crack down until every last illegal is out of this country. They have laughed at our laws and never deserve to be a part of this nation.”
Voted for Obama? Embarrassed yet?
The “news” reports continue to say that
This quote is from a Reuters article on the visit today of Mexican President Calderon. It is typical of the vast majority of news accounts I have read, of which there have been many.
Once a “misstatement” gains momentum, it takes on a life of its own and what the Arizona statute actually says fades into obscurity. The Big Lie strategy works.
They havn’t read the health care bill yet either. Seems we got the government we deserve.
Someone should let Lee Malvo out and give him his car back.
How many Obama Administration officials claim they have not read the 10 page Arizona immigration law?
The short answer is several, Eric Holder, PJ Crowley, Janet (Big Sis) Napolitano even Obama himself.
A caller to the Dennis Miller radio program nailed it this way.
They’ve all read it but can’t admit to it because the follow-up question would inevitably be; “What do you find objectionable to the law?”
Well we know the answer to that question. There is nothing in that law, as written, that is unconstitutional and certainly not racist.
This way the democrats can portray the law as racist and anti-Hispanic without specifics.
It’s nothing more than the Democrats trying to reinforce their lock on the Hispanic vote through a tried and true method of race baiting and at the same time painting Arizona, (A marginally Red state +4.9%), Republicans and anti-Illegal immigration advocates as racists.
I thought Obama was going to usher in a post-racial America?
In regard to Eric Holder, ethno-centrism does not an Attorney General make. Funny that the top law enforcement official in the United States has no interest in Senate Bill 1070 whose true purpose is to take in hand those state and local officials and sanctuary cities who purposefully ignore laws regarding illegal immigrants simply because they do not agree with them; 1070 gives an Arizonan citizen the right to sue those who ignore immigration law. This is the real nature of 1070 and in that sense it is a message as much as a law.
And now you have Holder, basically saying that he is in line with those who will ignore the law whenever they don’t agree with it, oaths of office or no. Holder is a disaster as Attorney General and was appointed for one reason only: because he is black; Holder has no sense of fairplay when it comes to white America as witness his inaugural press conference where he called out white America for not viewing all events through a lens of race like he does.
I have been to Brazil 8 times, Guatemala 7 times, Mexico 4, Bolivia and Peru 3 each for a total of 2 years and I speak portugese and spanish. Believe me, if you have the leaders of those countries against 1070 then you know you’ve done something right. To say that these leaders are ignorant and out of their depth intellectually is an understatement.
The whole of Latin America is a failure for its people and all the kings horses cannot blame imperialism, racism and colonialism for Latin America’s endemic short comings which are the result of having no concept or history of ‘the greater good’. South and Central America have advanced politically and there is a growing middle class across the region. Having said that, the entire region is wracked by terrible urban crime and the elegant Latino lifestyle that once dominated these cultures is a thing of the past.
Like Holder and minority ethno-centrist’s everywhere, the politically radicalized amongst them do not like America as they simultaneously see a culture they cannot emulate and cannot live without. In microcosm this is true in America as well.
I once met a woman at the US consulate in Rio and asked if she was an American. “Oh, my God! No, please. I don’t like Americans”. Nice. No doubt she has a car, a stereo, listens to rock and roll and has a computer. Take away everything American she uses everyday and she’s in “The Copper Age” and this is the true source of the envy, and dislike of America. They can’t live with us because they despise the symbiotic and one-way nature of the relationship and they can’t live without us cuz we update their lives every single month with our innovations across the entire spectrum of life.
Stop jealously and resentfully comparing yourself to the best amongst you every single day and you’ll have a healthier outlook and stop using the racism of others as an excuse for lack of achievement. It’s not our fault that those of European descent are smart as whips, quick on the uptake and breed success as effortlessly as shanty town residents in Rio de Janeiro throw garbage out of their own windows. Only at the end of the 90′s did I finally see public garbage receptacles on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, the ‘marvelous city’ and in the 21st century, more city busses are burned by gangs in Rio every single year than in the entire history of my hometown Minneapolis. If anybody in the United States cared or had the time, we could denounce Latin America wholesale but who has 24 hours a day to follow that cultural circus?
The South American leaders and OAS who voted to denounced 1070 are intellectually and ethically debauched and completely unaware of it because in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed idiot is king. Latin America has no real understanding of events overtaking America as a result of immigration and frankly don’t care cuz these provincial cultural chauvinists never met a Latino they didn’t like as long as a non-Latino was standing next to them.
Gang violence and kidnappings are so widespread in parts of Latin America that these ‘leader’ are saying to America, “What’s the big deal?”
I say, next to the ongoing disaster that is Latin America, what is the big deal with asking an ethnic Latino for some ID in the course of an investigation during the biggest meltdown of Latino illegal immigration and crime in our nation’s history. So-called ‘profiling’ is common sense dished up by minorities as racism so they can go on breaking American laws wholesale. Yes, Latinos have learned to use our own Constitution against us, the very Constitution they couldn’t emulate if it was tattooed to the windshields of the underpowered cars they produce.
Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies; unless I want to.
Several things concern me about the Arizona law (as changed):
You can say that racial profiling is not permitted, and you can change “contact” to “stop, detention, or arrest” and there’s still a problem. The hard fact is that the first and most immediate indicator of illegal status (in Arizona, anyway) is ethnicity. If you look Hispanic, you might be illegal. If you look like Conan O’Brien, you probably aren’t illegal (although you might be an extraterrestrial). My concern is not for the illegal immigrant but for the American citizen who happens to be Hispanic and is inevitably going to get a larger portion of police attention.
Read the excerpts of the law above and think about it as though you were a police officer. The police are damned if they do and damned it they don’t. The few racists cops can use the law as an excuse to focus on Hispanics, while the vast majority of fair-minded, professional cops risk censure if they aren’t sufficiently attentive to anyone who may appear to be Hispanic.
Finally, Arizona has no business enforcing immigration law. I sympathize with the people of Arizona, given the abject failure of the federal government in this area and the scope of the problem in this border state. However, the answer is not individual state law and immigration enforcement but an absolute necessity for Congress and the President to get their act together on immigration. Bush and the Republicans failed to do it, but that’s no excuse.
Tom, reasonable people can disagree on the way in which the new Arizona law will be implemented. What reasonable people — particularly those in high positions of authority — should not do is opine, erroneously, on what the law says without bothering to read it. That was my principal thesis.
That a law innocuous as written might be applied inequitably is certainly true. Laws against speeding, littering, drunk driving and the like can obviously be applied based on expressly prohibited profiling. That could be said of nearly any law. That does not suggest to me that we should have no laws.
Should the new Arizona law be applied inequitably, it will doubtless be attacked in the courts, as it should be.
It would be far better if there had been no need for Arizona to attempt to enforce federal law. The means chosen by Arizona to meet the need, generated by its proximity to the border and the failure of the federal government to enforce its own laws, fits as well as can be expected with the unenforced federal laws. It is said that nature abhors a vacuum; that seems to be the case here.
Read the law Tom. It says discrimination is not allowed. Any law can be abused and there is no reason to single this one out; the fact that Mexicans may be ‘profiled’ as so many idiots put it, is an academic argument based on conjecture against hard facts like kidnapping, human trafficking and violent drug warfare – it’s criticizing Americans who don’t want to bring a spoon to a knife fight. Any state or American for that matter has the right to protect themselves if a Federal law is being ignored for political gerrymandering or other motives. One cannot ignore laws one doesn’t like, especially if you are a sworn official and that is exactly what is happening.
Arizonan’s are tired of waiting and have taken action. We’re talking about the criminalization of America by Latin America where the crime rate recently went up 400% in a 4 year period. You want to put this up against the fact that a few people MIGHT be inconvenienced and then portray that as a Constitution breaker? Get out of the tower. Democrats in congress who want to gerrymander foreign nationals votes in order to secure their own power are traitors and Republicans in congress who are afraid of the Latino vote are cowards. Only states are left.
Hey, hey! I can answer that question, Oakland Council President Brunner! Pick me! Okay, okay, okay! Here is how a cop knows if someone is here illegally. If you are, like, driving your sheriff car a half mile north of the border at 3 AM, (insert valley-girl-raised-accent-phrase-endings here) and you see a U-Haul truck driving northbound with its headlamps off, and you, like, turn around and follow it, and the driver stops and jumps out and runs into the desert, and after a minute, like, the back door rolls up, and there’s, like, 25 sweaty guys standing up inside the box, and they are all wearing, like, crappy, dusty clothes and they have gallon jugs of water hanging around their necks on ropes, and they see you and your police car so some jump out and run away, and some others just sit down and look at you, and you say, “whatcha guys doing” and they just stare at you like they don’t understand, then this is what the cops call “reasonable suspicion to believe someone is here illegally.” You might call it a “clue”, Jane. If you had one.
Are you still Proud or even Glad that you voted for Obama?