Friday, May 21, 2010

It's Not Our Job

So a federal agency is refusing to enforce federal law?
The law, which criminalizes being in the state illegally and requires authorities to check suspects for immigration status
I don't know if that's FNC's words or Mortons, but the Arizona law doesn't make it a crime to be in the state illegally. Federal law makes it a crime. The Arizona law just enforces it. If the federal government refuses to do it's job then the states have to step up and do it.

7 comments:

Silke said...

I understand the frustration over the federal government’s inability to stop illegal immigration. But how will Arizona police officers be able to distinguish legal immigrants and American citizens who look Hispanic from illegal immigrants, Chris? Should all American citizens be required to carry their birth certificates with them when they are in Arizona or just the ones that look Hispanic?

Christopher Lee said...

Most people carry an ID with them already. Be it a drivers license or an ID card. When a cop witnesses you in the act of a crime they can pull you over and ask to see your ID. With that they'll be able to tell who you are. Despite how some are trying to portray this law, cops can't just stop some brown guy on the street and ask to see his ID. Really, as I see it, and I could be wrong, this law is more of a symbolic thing. The state of Arizona is saying "we need help and the government won't do anything. so we're going to try and force them".

Silke said...

Chris, you can’t tell from an ID card whether a person is a citizen of this country or not. So what happens when a police officer in Arizona asks a citizen or a legal immigrant for their birth certificate/immigration papers and they can’t produce them?

Christopher Lee said...

you can't tell from an ID card whether a person is a citizen of this country or not

Actually, you can. When the name is run you get info on that person. So it would tell the cop whether or not you were born in America or not.

Now, I've not read the whole bill but I have the PDF here and I did a search and can't find anything about requiring a birth certificate to be shown. I've never even heard of a cop asking for someone's birth certificate. As for immigration papers, I don't know the ins and outs of our immigration laws but I would think that if someone is here legally or on a VISA or something they would have something that says so. Like a Permanent Resident Card, or Green Card. I don't know. And if they don't, then that may be a red flag. But we're getting off the point of this post. A federal agency who's job it is to handle illegal immigration is refusing to do so.

Silke said...

Every state has different requirements for obtaining a driver’s license/ID card. And when a police officer runs a check it tells them that person’s criminal record and state of residence - not where they were born.

Besides, this would only apply to the driver in a routine traffic stop. What about other people in the car or what if the police officer is in a house? Does he have the right to ask everyone for their driver’s license? Wouldn’t that fall under the “lawful contact” rule?

I don’t think this is off the point of this post at all. Aren’t you even a little curious how state officials plan to enforce a law which federal officials have a hard time doing? Maybe that’s the point.

Christopher Lee said...

Is this law perfect? No. I don't think any law concerning immigration can be because no matter what you do people will scream racism. Just like with Iran, I don't have a solution. Smarter people than me who've been working on this mess for years don't have one either. But if this law, and subsequent laws passed because of it in other states, finally force the government to step up and do something other than amnesty, which is what's going to happen again, then that's a good thing.

Silke said...

I worry this law will make things worse – not better. The federal government’s inability to prevent illegal immigration is not due to a lack of will but a lack of resources. Arizona’s new law won’t change that. It just shifts the burden to state and local law enforcement - who have even less resources.