Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signing the bill. Arizona has recently passed a very controversial law regarding illegal immigrants and the police's power in checking IDs for suspected illegal immigrants. If immigrants do not possess the proper immigration papers they are subject to being detained and deported. Many view this laws as unconstitutional and predicted that people of Hispanic decent will be unfairly profiled and harassed. Laws similar to Arizona's are in place in some other countries including France but they are the first of their nature in the United States.
I think was Arizona did was smart for protecting their state. Not only have they brought illegal immigration to the national stage they have shown the federal government if they are not willing to step up and protect the boarder then they will do it themselves. It is a very cavalier attitude that is often not present these days. Also, it will most likely see a mass outflow of current illegal immigrants who decide to risk their American Saga in other states. It is arguably unconstitutional but the constitution was not written to protect the rights of those who are not citizens or legally in the United States. It is not fair that Arizona has had to bear the brunt of a national problem because of their geographic location.
I think it is hard for other states to understand the positions of Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico because other states do not have to deal with illegal immigration as much. Other states do not spend their tax dollars on people who are their illegally and who pay no taxes themselves. If these states were dealing with this issue on a daily basis as well I think they would be much more willing to accept a similar law. It is hard to make it a federal law because 46 of the states are relatively unaffected by the consequences of illegal immigration.
Many notoriously liberal cities such as San Francisco have held marches and have declared themselves as "sanctuary cities" who will welcome illegal immigrants. San Francisco supervisor David Campos said, "We as San Franciscans need to send a very clear message that this kind of discriminatory law is not going to be tolerated." It is ironic that cities who are making public statements like this are being praised by Americans. San Franciscans are blatantly ignoring a federal law in order to protect people who are here illegally. However, if they are too open about it then they will have a major influx of immigrants and will be facing similar problems of Arizona. On behalf of Arizona though props to San Fran for taking the bullet on this one.
If many US cities decide to blatantly disregard federal law then we will have a large problem on our hands as a country. These cities think they are doing a favor for liberty but they are actually undermining the entire justice system, the one that protects all of our liberties to begin with. Fortunately other cities have not been as blatant in their disregard for federal laws and illegals do not have as many sanctuaries as they would like. Do you agree with San Francisco's disregard for federal laws or do you think they should be punished for their lack of enforcement?
1) Arizona's new laws are not only questionably constitutional, they are a means to harass legal immigrants as well. As a beaner, I can't go through Arizona on my way to California on the off-chance that my family and I will be detained. My parents have resided legally here for over a decade and my sister and I were both born on US soil. As much as these laws are supposed to 'help' they are also a means for discrimination.
ReplyDelete2) Immigration is a problem for more than 4 states. At the very least, Florida sees decent traffic in people leaving Cuba. Also, while a vast majority of immigrants stay somewhat near the border, a great number of them disperse throughout the country.
3) I agree with Campos's principles, but you are correct in that conforming with federal law is crucial to the unity of our nation. Their lack of enforcement has existed for a while though and punishing them now would be somewhat hypocritical.