Arizona becoming the first state to secede from the Union
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Arizona becoming the first state to secede from the Union
Two years before Arizona celebrates its centennial as the last of the 48 contiguous United States, I'm beginning to wonder if they can truly make it until 2012. If Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signs into law the harsh anti-immigration law recently passed by state lawmakers -- making racial profiling the law of the law in a manner in which the term "police state" is not hyberbole -- then the desert paradise will all but have seceded from the Union. Not legally -- not yet, anyway, although in a few years who knows? -- but morally.
Here's the proposed law:
The bill, known as SB 1070, makes it a misdemeanor to lack proper immigration paperwork in Arizona. It also requires police officers, if they form a "reasonable suspicion" that someone is an illegal immigrant, to determine the person's immigration status.
Currently, officers can inquire about someone's immigration status only if the person is a suspect in another crime.
Meaning:
Opponents, however, raised the specter of officers untrained in immigration law being required to determine who is in the country legally. They noted that though the bill says race cannot solely be used to form a suspicion about a person's legality, it implicitly allows it to be a factor.
"A lot of U.S. citizens are going to be swept up in the application of this law for something as simple as having an accent and leaving their wallet at home," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.
I spent some time in Arizona last month reporting a chapter for my forthcoming book, The Backlash. During my time there, I spoke with people on both sides of the issue, including Maricopa County's love-him-or-hate-him Sheriff Joe Arpaio (I still have his business card in my wallet!) and Sen. John McCain's right-wing primary challenger, J.D. Hayworth, as well as Tea Party leaders but also a leading pro-immigrant activist from Puente, the group that arose in opposition to Arpaio's harsh policies, which are just a prelude -- in my opinion -- to the horrors that will be unleashed under this law.
I don't celebrate the practice of people entering the United States illegally -- but much of the flood of undocumented workers to places like Arizona over the last decade have been the result of many factors, including our own illogical laws and policies. The vast, vast majority of undocumented immigrants are not here to commit crimes but to work and support their loved ones.
Americans, and Arizonans in this present crisis, have two choices. We can turn an entire state of more than 6 million people into a non-stop cauldron of paranoia and suspicion, separate children from their parents, destroy what's left of Arizona's economy out of little more than spite and -- let's be honest here, OK? -- racism, and treat our fellow humans like common criminals. Of we can provide a real path to U.S. citizenship for people who are already here and who agree to continue to pay taxes and obey our laws, and get more realistic in the future about who enters the United States and who doesn't -- and work to make Arizona a beacon of economic growth.
It doesn't seem like a hard choice -- and yet here is Arizona on the brink of becoming a rogue state, right here within our borders.
The situation is not completely hopeless. There is still time to convince Arizona's governor Brewer to veto this un-American and inhumane legislation -- although the chances of that happening seem slim. What Brewer and the political mis-leaders of Arizona need to understand is this: THERE WILL BE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES, and severe ones, if Arizona continues down this path. I know that based on past experience -- the state lost untold millions in business during the 1980s because of its failure to recognize the Martin Luther King Holiday; even though its harmful action then was arguably symbolic, unlike the very real and very tragic consequences to families of Latino descent under this law.
The alternative would be for Arizona to listen to the words of another much-honored American of the 20th Century, who said the nation needed to act in order to "improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society."
Arizona should heed the advice of Ronald Reagan.
*In best German accent* "Do you have your payperzzz?" Nice to know we are turning into the very thing we fought a revolution against.
The likable John McCain of the twentieth century, who pushed for reasonable immigration reform, has been replaced by the sad spectacle of the twenty-first century McCain who just endorsed this unjust legislation.- The problem now is not undocumented workers (still not a lot of unfilled jobs in this recession), but it is Mexican families fleeing the drug wars. Do the good folks of Arizona (must be some--after all Janet Napolitano is from there) want to send these families back into the line of fire?
I'm not interested in AZ becoming a refugee camp. The stoners who want to legalize pot are just going to give the drug gangs more power. I wouldn't get too uptight about this law. Somebody will get an injunction and it will probably get thrown out without ever being enforced.— SteveMG- As an American Indian, I see this as a bunch of immigrants trying to keep other immigrants out of the country.— Coppellia
- I think illegal immigration is a crime (it's actually in the phrase). Are you all saying it's somehow unjust to discern if someone is in the country illegally? So, if a police officer pulls over an unregistered car and the driver appears to be an immigrant of one kind or another, that police officer would be profiling if he asked the driver if they are a citizen? How far are you people willing to go? Let's just open the border. Clearly any attempt to enforce our immigration laws will be seen by progressives/liberals as racism in one form or another. The thing is if you continually apply the term racism whenever a minority is involved, don't you diminish real live racism? Just curious.— pjsz1261
- More leftist drivel from the Inky spin machine, and it comes complete with an historical inaccuracy. "Arizona becoming the first state to secede from the Union?" Will, does the date 1860 mean anything to you?— George Tomezsko
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What part of "illegal" is so hard to understand? Many countries stamp your passport on arrival saying you have no recourse to public funds while in their country. Some you can't get in without showing a ticket for your exit. Of course they enforce their borders.— georgel- I meant this go-round, George— will
- Will, Will, Will; Arizona secedes? And the "harsh" law enforcement by the Sheriff? The "horrors that will be unleashed" by this law? Whew! I expect silliness from your columns but this time you've outdone yourself. Congratulations!— Falls Ed
- SteveMG, your comment is not only baseless, it's irrelevant. Let them pass the law, then when they spend a ton of money arresting citizens and when small businesses start closing because citizens don't want to work the illegal jobs, then it will be repealed.— HandNik
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- Will, you should try this self-righteous line of thinking on an immigrant who has waited their turn, followed all our laws, obtained a job legally and earn citizenship only to watch another immigrant steal their way into the country and be rewarded with welfare.— PhillyTru
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