No way to escape all the heat over AZ making a law in response to the failure of the feds to manage immigration in an organized manner. The emotions run high with people who find their own farms and ranches to be unsafe, and those who feel crime against citizens result. Emotions also run high among people who want to be here, are here, and often have some family ties.
Then you get organizations which promote a little more fear and hatred than is warranted. They have their own agenda and it has far more to do with power than compassion. I'm sorry but I do not give credence to organizations based solely on the politics of race, rather than true freedom and equal treatment under the law. We are ending up with class hatred and racial polarization in the name of things which cloak themselves in half truths and which turn a blind eye to reality.
Finally I located the entire text of the AZ law. At least it is short enough that maybe those voting on it actually read it, unlike many federal laws. It is mostly full of things that one would think are standard operating procedure to begin with, however I can see some danger in it.
In my view AZ has the right to make laws instructing law enforcement to enforce laws. Even so, I am skeptical of long term value of the measure.
It is quite clear in reading this that AZ has a problem, and that problem is lack of support from the feds who are not doing their job in protecting borders. The big trouble is that many who cross the border illegally are committing crimes and burdening the social services of the border towns and beyond.
Federal entities have shown a lack of concern, at best, and even support, at worst, for the gang and criminal activity which relies on illegal crossing of the border. That makes it tough for those who are actually looking to do work where work is. The non-violent illegals will be dealt with more harshly due to the riffraff. If not for the crime and abuse of services, there would not be much worry about the others.
The worst of it is that what all this is being used to do is to enlarge another voter block based on race, fueled by appeal to emotion rather than reason. That appears to be at least one motive for some of the insane reactions such as sanctuary cities and such. Those things open a door to the undesirable elements who are taking advantage of a system that increasingly punishes citizens while ignoring threats.
I would more allow the officers to determine legality when a stop is made rather than put them under a requirement. There are a lot of times when it would be better for them to let the guy go. It's a case by case thing. They check for a license anyway and that serves as enough documentation under the law. You get caught just floating around in the country without any legal status, then you run into some trouble. Isn't that already the deal?
Given the probability that a lot of the law enforcement personnel is Hispanic, just like the border patrol, I can't see this as a racially biased measure. If I got stopped with no ID and had the aspect of someone from Russia or even Ireland, I would be in the same boat as anyone else. In reality most people entering the country illegally into Arizona are from Mexico. That does not make race an issue. The issue is illegal entry, expense of those taking advantage of tax paid social services and crime, more than anything else.
Somehow the overall treatment of thing has not been working or there would not be people getting murdered on their ranches, setting up camp on private property, violence scaring the people, etc.
When the Mexican government complains, there is something way wrong. Just see how easy it is to gather a bunch of undocumented people there to protest in Mexico city. See how Guatemalans are treated sneaking across the southern border of Mexico. Their laws are far more strict and unyielding than ours. They are not nearly as nice to those who enter illegally. They have no right to say a thing, and it is insane that we give them the slightest credibility. They need to run their own country in a decent way so people aren't so desperate to escape, and so it is not so dicey for Americans to visit.
It looks like this thing has blown into a gigantic cloud of lies which provide fertile ground for demagogues and self serving groups to jockey for more power as they foment unwarranted hate and fear. It is not a sanctioned roundup of everyone of Mexican heritage, and it may be a slight door opener which may have other consequences. Mostly it only reiterates federal law but requires cops to enforce it.
If someone has committed some sort of infraction, he's always going to be scrutinized by cops. If this was a racial thing, I could see the fear of police creating excuses for stopping people to remain within the bounds of the law while actually harassing people. I've been subjected to that in Miami back in the old days and I have no faith in the benevolence of law enforcement in the long run.
That is the main danger of this law and many others; it could come back to bite innocent people minding their own business, down the road. And it won't be the ones who are now rioting and throwing rocks. Just like homeland security has managed to place innocents under more harassment in response to threats from others. Much like the war on drugs measures which suspended probable cause and the practice of setting up roadblocks making everyone show ID and prove innocence.
There must be a way to untie the hands of local authorities in communities which suffer from the spill over of violent gang and drug cartel activity without having race baiters incite riots and threaten citizens. Hatred of arrogant freeloaders and criminals is somewhat common. Hatred of people from Mexico and others of Mexican descent is far less prevalent. Hatred of gringos is becoming encouraged and widespread, simply by falsely convincing Hispanics that they are victims and under threat.
I still wonder how anyone can believe homeland security is actually concerned about keeping terrorists out when they do so little to keep criminal elements out. It does add to the confusion that many illegals are not really criminally motivated. Just a case in which they heard the thing to do if you can't wait out the red tape is cross over, make some money and live better. Plenty of second and third generation American citizens who find themselves in dire straits wish they had such a clear cut way to salvation.
I don't know. The law most reiterates what is already in federal law, and cites such. Not worth the flap. They do have a right to try to keep their community safe and their hospitals and schools affordable.
No other country I know of has as much leniency toward immigrants, legal or illegal. Mexico certainly doesn't.
Although I don't think the law will promote the rounding up of everyone who looks Hispanic, if some encouragement by law admin is put in place along the lines of traffic ticket quotas, it could be abused. I just find it hard to believe that in light of the problems caused by massive illegal entry, which are undeniable, that people support measures which make it impossible to combat, and that the feds totally play politics rather than curtail the problem.
Many people would rather get in an emotional frenzy rather that look at the truth, and then there are those who salivate at any chance to make an issue racial which isn't.
