Arizona's SB1070
The immigration bill passed by the Arizona House is making quite a stink. You can see the full text of the bill here. Article 8, Part E:
A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, WITHOUT A WARRANT, MAY ARREST A PERSON IF THE OFFICER HAS PROBABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THE PERSON HAS COMMITTED ANY PUBLIC OFFENSE THAT MAKES THE PERSON REMOVABLE FROM THE UNITED STATES.
That's right. Anyone can be stopped at any time for any vague reason--let me see your papers, please. But the bill then veers from authoritarian to absurdity. Sec. 5, Part A:
IT IS UNLAWFUL FOR A PERSON TO ENTER A MOTOR VEHICLE THAT IS STOPPED ON A STREET, ROADWAY OR HIGHWAY IN ORDER TO BE HIRED BY AN OCCUPANT OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE AND TO BE TRANSPORTED TO WORK AT A DIFFERENT LOCATION IF THE MOTOR VEHICLE BLOCKS OR IMPEDES THE NORMAL MOVEMENT OF TRAFFIC.
So now they'll have to park legally, which of course deters hiring undocumented immigrants.
The Senate will vote on the bill Monday.
6 comments:
Has McCain commented on this yet? With the right-wing swing and the primary challenge from Hayworth, I wouldn't be surprised if he supports it.
This one will be headed straight to Federal Court. These anti-immigrant laws have been brushing against constitutional barriers for several years now, but this one doesn't just step over the line, it blast past it like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The stopping on probable cause without a warrant is clearly unconstitutional, because if you have to be racial profiling. If you're stopping them because they committed some offense, that's different.
But you are clearly racial profiling if you're just stopping them to ask for papers. Otherwise, you would have to show that you are stopping an equal number of white, black, Native American and Hispanic people to pass the strict scrutiny test. And the funny part is, I read on the Huffington Post in the comments of a story, that one Hispanic living in Phoenix ask every non-Hispanic he met on Thursday if they had papers with them sufficient to demonstrate their citizenship, i.e. a drivers license or birth certificate + a social security card + a voters registration (all three are required to demonstrate citizenship under this law). Only one person, an immigrant from Iraq had his green card, his drivers license, and his birth certificate with him, and he looked Hispanic. All the rest, nice white folks, should have been carted off to Joe Arpaio's Little Shop of Horrors. This is gonna be funny to watch. The first legislator that doesn't have his papers and is carted off to jail is gonna be REALLY funny.
Yes, this is not likely to go anywhere. I have not yet seen whether McCain has said anything.
We can talk about "rednecks" and "racists" all we want, but the sentiment of anti immigration is out there and growing. While this law is crazy and unconstitutional, it speaks to the frustration of states with no power in this Federal issue. AND a growing public support for doing SOMETHING rather than nothing.
We need comprehensive immigration reform (what ever that is). Now!
But as pointed out the chances of that are slim to none. My guess would be that things like this will continue to pop up.
This is racism, pure and simple. The extreme right of the Republican Party is completely lost. All the more reason why there is room for a third party in American politics. The fringe right makes all the noise but the center right and center left are not being heard any longer.
Ross Perot was almost 20 years ago. Lots has changed since then. I really think a third party candidate (who is rich enough to fund the campaign) can win.
AP : Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony on Arizona : German Nazi or Soviet Communist Repression, Children turning in parents, neighbors prying into private lives to report to the State.
The Catholic Church fighting for Human Decency and against Racist Holocausts and Progroms :
Associated Press
Los Angeles Cardinal: Nazism in Arizona immigration bill
April 20, 2010
Los Angeles Cardinal: Nazism in Arizona immigration bill
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jBbaacHSTfwQFWSi7VYGq2utcS_gD9F6VRFO0
Some excerpts :
LOS ANGELES — The head of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese has condemned a proposed Arizona crackdown on illegal immigrants, saying it encourages people to turn on each other in Nazi- and Soviet-style repression.
The measure wrongly assumes that Arizonans "will now shift their total attention to guessing which Latino-looking or foreign-looking person may or may not have proper documents," Cardinal Roger Mahony said in his blog Sunday — a day before Arizona's Legislature sent the immigration enforcement measure to the Republican governor.
Gov. Jan Brewer has not indicated whether she will sign the bill, which creates a new state misdemeanor of willful failure to complete or carry an alien registration document. It would also require officers to determine people's immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally.
................
But Mahony, whose archdiocese has a huge Hispanic immigrant population, said the Arizona Legislature was passing "the country's most retrogressive, mean-spirited, and useless anti-immigrant law."
Similar laws that were previously passed in other states have been repealed or struck down in the courts, he said.
"The tragedy of the law is its totally flawed reasoning: that immigrants come to our country to rob, plunder, and consume public resources," Mahony said.
"I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation," the cardinal said. "Are children supposed to call 911 because one parent does not have proper papers? Are family members and neighbors now supposed to spy on one another, create total distrust across neighborhoods and communities, and report people because of suspicions based upon appearance?"
Raciality.com
Vicente Duque
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