1) Prevents any town, city, or local division (i.e. a county) from making a law that restricts enforcement of federal immigration laws.
2) The bill spends several pages talking about what can be done to prevent businesses from hiring illegal immigrants. This includes revoking licenses, fines, and filing a lot of paperwork.
3) For the first two...I doubt you'll find much controversy. But the "meat and potatoes" of this bill is:
B. FOR ANY LAWFUL CONTACT MADE BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY OF THIS STATE OR A COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE WHERE REASONABLE SUSPICION EXISTS THAT THE PERSON IS AN ALIEN WHO IS UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES, A REASONABLE ATTEMPT SHALL BE MADE, WHEN PRACTICABLE, TO DETERMINE THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF THE PERSON. THE PERSON'S IMMIGRATION STATUS SHALL BE VERIFIED WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
PURSUANT TO 8 UNITED STATES CODE SECTION 1373(c).
This section, minus the relatively light legalese, simply says that a police officer must check the immigration status of someone who is suspected of being an illegal immigrant. Let's start by tackling that bolded term, "lawful contact".
I did a google search for "lawful contact" and found nothing concrete. I consulted a legal dictionary, and no term was found. In truth, there is no actual legal definition for "lawful contact". I was listening to Sean Hannity the other day when he discusses this bill. He claimed that he didn't see the problem with this because, "if I get pulled over for speeding, the first thing the cop does is check my driver's license." He seemed to be implying that this situation would be the same. But the gray area in defining "lawful contact" concerns many that it made lead to harassment of Latinos. Remember that there are many American citizens of Latino descent. They certainly shouldn't have to "prove" their citizenship anymore than white folks do. I highly doubt, however, than there will be much checking of citizenship papers for the white people living in Arizona.
But, for the sake of argument, let's try the highly questionable exercise of assuming that Sean Hannity is right and this law is nothing more than a reaffirmation of existing law. First, this begs the question, why pass this law at all? If a law needs to be passed in Arizona requiring police officers to check identification during situations such as traffic stops and routine police calls, I'd say the problem is more with the policing in Arizona than the influx of immigrants. This, though, isn't what this bill is about.
The reality here is that "lawful contact" will mean stopping Latinos and checking their identification anytime a police officer wants. Someone close to me, arguing for the bill, said, "it's ok to look white in America." I'm sure that person was saying something out of emotion in a debate and not actual belief, but he hit it right on the head. This bill obviously amounts to racial profiling. But the real purpose of this post is to explore the why behind this bill.
Immigration will be the ultimate test for our politicians over the next couple of years. This debate has layers upon layers, and, honestly, both sides have many salient points to make. It is true that the United States is made up of immigrants and there is some hypocrisy behind making entry into the US very difficult for new immigrants. However, there are real issues to consider here. First, border states do have serious safety and legal difficulties to deal with. The Mexican Drug War has been well publicized here, and most people seem to realize that major veins in the drug trade start on the south side of the Rio Grande and move northward through our border states. This trafficking brings potential violence and some obvious sociological problems that accompany hard drug use.
There is also no doubt that for drug, or other, reasons that potential violence has come to fruition in some capacity. Furthermore, with unemployment at 10% (higher in many places), there is a sense, whether it is real or not is debatable, that Americans are being shoved out of the jobs market both here and abroad. And even if you don't believe that there are groups of Americans clamoring to pick tomatoes; from a human-rights perspective it sure would be nice to see these immigrants earn citizenship so they are privy to minimum wage and labor laws.
Oh, and don't forget the argument about services like emergency rooms, use of highways, use of government services such as fire departments and law enforcement, and the extreme fear Americans have that illegal immigrants will be enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, or other social welfare programs. Furthermore, some programs like Social Security, (at least in theory) work based on the fact that we pay in over the course of our employed lives, and then get a check that is essentially our own money paid when we turn 65. Even if immigrants gained citizenship at age 50, they won't have paid in nearly as much as you or I.
All of those arguments are real, but mostly just a smokescreen for the real reason behind Arizona's bill. There is a growing sense among white males that they are losing their grip on power in this country. According to the Census Bureau white people will be the minority in this country somewhere around 2050. We see a black man, with a foreign sounding name, as President. He nominated a Latino woman to the Supreme Court. The Speaker of the House, who has garnered a huge amount of attention in the media, is a female. The Secretary of State also sports two X chromosomes. The concept of old, male, protestant, and white being in power is not as much a foregone conclusion as it used to be (although the vast majority of those in power still fit that description).
Even if you agree with my conclusion, beware of dismissing those people as racist and ignorant. It isn't so simple. Remember that change is difficult for everyone. Also remember that there were no doubt tribesmen who suggested kindness and acceptance to their Native American brethren regarding the new white settlers in America. Oops! Even fear in reference to taboo topics such as racism can be real fear.
This fear can lead to very poorly conceived laws such as the one just passed in Arizona. But it isn't enough to whine about the law, we must try and take some action to satisfy those very real concerns of Arizonians and all Americans.
The real weakness (other than the vitriol of racial profiling) of Arizona's bill is that it is much too heavy on enforcement. We have seen over the many many years of America "War on Drugs" that focusing on enforcement is a band-aid strategy that doesn't actually solve a problem. It is very successful, however, at wasting resources and turning an entire group of people against law enforcement and government in general. Here are my thoughts:
1) The first step to solving this problem has to be increasing border security. The only near-term way to alleviate the safety concerns of border state citizens is to work to close down the border more effectively. In addition, there is no way to make a real immigration plan if large numbers of new illegal immigrants enter the country every day. My suggestion is to build military bases along the border. We can fill those bases with troops from the wastelands of Afghanistan and Iraq as they are pulled out of there. I'm quite sure they'd much rather defend their country than someone else's. I'm also sure that life on a Texas or Arizona base with their families near is a big step up over Iraqi barracks.
2) Provide a path to citizenship that is reasonable for both sides. I outlined earlier the financial concerns people have over immigration. The reality is, illegal immigrants are breaking the law. To become a citizen they should have to pay a fine for breaking the law (payment of that fine would end all legal proceedings), take an English class and obtain a certificate, and agree to take some form of G.E.D. type education. If you have a college degree, permanent status should be automatically granted. Though I don't want to get fully into it here, there is a real concern with allowing totally untrained and uneducated people to flood the system. Doing so, especially if they are already past high school age where it is unlikely they have the opportunity for upward mobility, would increase the size of the poorest class in society. That would strain our social safety net even further. Those individuals must show a willingness to catch up to educational standards in this country so they may increase a robust middle class and not a weak lower class.
3) Legalize pot. Budget concerns in the country are abound. Taxing marijuana is good for that, but its also good to undercut Mexican suppliers. Allow American farmers to grow, cut demand for Mexican grass, and that may alleviate the drug wars on our side of the border to some extent. Furthermore, police waste a huge amount of resources pursuing pot dealer and growers. Who cares? Relax people!
4) Pound employers who hire illegal immigrants. A word of caution: doing this without doing at least steps 1 and 2 will result in a large jobless class that will still be here, will still need to eat, and will likely get it by breaking into your house. Poverty is a major driver of crime, especially when those in poverty are living near those with wealth. That said, employers do more to hide illegal immigrants than people realize. Even the small area I'm from (Henry County, IN) has many illegal immigrants working. Everyone knows the farmers there employ Mexicans with, ahem, questionable citizenship status. But nothing is done.
This topic is complex enough for books, let along blog posts. At any rate, read the bill, see for yourself, then smack anyone in the balls who says its a good bill. Now you know better!
***A quick follow-up note: "Lawful contact" was revised to say "lawful stop, detention, or arrest" in an attempt to relieve concerns over racial profiling. This provision doesn't actually mean anything though, because the revision also states that an arrest is not required to question immigration status. I'd be very careful about jay-walking and forgetting to use my turn signal if I were Latino.
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