Linkmeister

Arizona's new Immigration law

Yesterday Janet Napolitano's replacement as Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, signed a law which essentially says Arizona's law enforcement personnel can stop anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant and ask them for their identity papers. From Article 8 of Arizona SB 1070 (.pdf):

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.

Here's a bit of amusement from an otherwise disgusting and probably unconstitutional bill: "This act may be cited as the 'Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act'." Seems to me that it should just be called the Driving/Walking/Existing While Mexican Act.

Given that Arizona is roughly 30% Hispanic, I wondered if there exists an Arizona Hispanic Republican group and what they think of this.

Not much. Other than the peculiar reference to "Republican" Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a slap at Obama for not acting on immigration policy within his first 90 days in office, it might as well have been written by a bunch of Democrats.

It is unfortunate that our own members of the Republican Party believe that we have to trample on our Constitution in order to “enforce our laws.” We believe that Pearce is easing the requirements for “probable cause” and his attempt in expanding our government. What Pearce’s bill proves is that he does not have the answer for illegal immigration within the confines of the American Constitution, and in fact he is not solving the problem by creating more problems.

We believe United States Hispanic citizens have a right to be safe in their person from illegal searches and seizures, and we believe Pearce’s efforts are violating that. SB 1070 is a direct slap in the face to Hispanic Americans who have fought and died for several American wars because this new law can be abused by authorities to pull us over with mere “reasonable suspicion”.

Goodness gracious! Hispanic Republicans want equal treatment under the law! What can they be thinking?

I really don't understand the kind of thinking that can keep a group of people in a party which has proven itself hostile to the group's interests at every turn. I don't understand it when the group is poor or disadvantaged white Americans, I don't understand it when it's gay Americans, and I don't understand it when it's black or Hispanic Americans. How long does it take to figure it out?

Posted by Linkmeister at April 24, 2010 02:03 PM | TrackBack