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.
Pretty funny to watch all these "make government smaller" "conservatives" whining for a larger and more restrictive government.— Talking point sleuth- there goes hysterical Will again! So far in the last few months , will has predicted massive shoot outs in national parks if guns are allowed, massive gun fights and mayhem on April 19th, and now immigration police roaming the country asking for ID's Will, the sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!!!— Tom813
"Or being forced to buy health insurance." RG - new talking points please...this is so old...Oh and you forgot Japan.— Les Ismore- "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." THIS SHOULD BE THE LAW OF THE LAND, NOT JUST AZ. Only an eastern city slicker like Will, far from any border and accustomed to, and therefore desensitized to, daily crime, could write this piece and be serious about it.— pj katauskas
- lets be honest people, legal AND illegal immigrants, many from mexico and central america, do the work americans and specifically teenage americans no longer are able, or no longer want to do.— mjp1305
Comment removed.- "new talking points please" This isn't a talking point, its actually a law that just passed. If you don't buy health insurance, you'll get fined. Yet Plebby's whining about liberty in regards to AZs law.— RG
- This kinda makes the immigration laws Hazelton attempted to enact look weak in comparison.— unclejed
- This one is so easy that I can't believe that anyone would actually line up on the other side of it. If you break into the White House, you will go to jail for a long time. If you trespass on someone's property, you will get arrested and fined. IT IS AGAINST THE LAW TO BREAK INTO OUR COUNTRY, and every other country in the world. We should IMMEDIATELY begin enforcing this law, arrest EVERY illegal alien, put them in jail for 5 years and deport them immediately afterwards. Businesses employing illegal aliens should face $1 million fines per day that they employ these people (i.e. stop making it attractive to use their services). If people want to immigrate to the US, they need to follow the correct process. We aren't helping Mexico by letting it's citizens run willy nilly over the border.— IggleFan68
Illegals aren't doing work that Americans won't - they are doing work Americans won't at that wage. Illegals will do the work because it is a better wage than they can secure in their home country but what it does is cost Americans jobs and suppresses American wages. This is a similiar discussion to what Bunch posted last week about manufacturing jobs in Philly and the problem is the same until Americans realize that it is in their best interest to pay a few dollars more for American made goods and services.— bird11- Arizona is moving in the right direction.— sadim
- I think it is very easy to criticize AZ from our comfy seat in PA or NJ. I noticed no mention of the farmer murdered by illegals in AZ. The government is not serious about border security under the prior or current administration. We need to shut the border down, and then deal with the illegals that are here. Until they shut off the leak, we cannot bail out. And Will, they are illegal immigrants, not undocumented workers. They broke the law, and should be sent back if caught. If the concern is lack of training, then train law enforcement. The Dems like this because if they can get amnesty, they will get them the right to vote, and they will have a new voting block. The President will need this in 2012, since his support is dropping daily.— Bush3
- What a silly premise, like so many of Will's. A state enacts a law consistent with federal law, which btw folks, makes illegal entry, well, illegal, and Will calls it "secession." If I'm not mistaken when she was AZ gov Napolitano asked for federal help in enforcing AZ borders. Did that make her a secessionist?— pj katauskas
- RG you realize that we were already required to buy health insurance for ourselves and our parents and grandparents, and everybody else's too. Crazy little thing called Medicare.— SteveMG
- Oh yeah, one more thing. If you or me were born in Mexico or Central America, I have no doubt that we would be trying to go north. That doesn't make us criminals. But I do think not enough is done to punish those who hire illegals, like Stoneman said above. Everybody wants to pay low prices, but everybody also wants to forget how we get those low prices.— SteveMG
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