|
| |
THE
ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW
By Michael Connelly
MichaelConnely.vivity.com
The liberal news media is hysterical, the President of the United States is threatening to have Federal agents reviewing every arrest that is made by State and Local authorities, and the Attorney General of the United States is considering filing a suit in Federal Court to have the law declared unconstitutional. All of this is allegedly being done to protect “Civil Rights”. At first glance, you might think that this was something written about the efforts to abolish the segregation laws in the deep south in the 1960s.
However, that is not the case because the reactions I am referring to are those being directed at the sovereign state of Arizona for daring to try and stem the tide of illegal immigrants, illegal drugs, and violent criminals flowing across its southern border. This is a tide that is destroying the state’s economy and causing massive increases in crime including the murder of American citizens on the border who dare to complain. Yet, the American public is being told that this law will cause violations of civil rights and so a boycott of Arizona is being called for to punish the citizens of the state because they overwhelmingly support the new law.
So what exactly does this law say? Well, it is Senate Bill 1070 passed by the Arizona Legislature and I have read the entire bill and it was indeed a pleasure because it is a comprehensive and straightforward piece of legislation that is only 17 pages long. Compare that to the health care bill recently passed by Congress that was over 2700 pages and the pending Cap and Trade Bill that is over 1400 pages long. I can guarantee that everyone in the Arizona legislature read the bill before they voted on it, unlike Nancy Pelosi, who informed members of the Congress that they needed to pass the health care bill so they could find out what was in it.
In a nutshell, the new Arizona law tracks the Federal law that has been in existence for 23 years but is no longer enforced by the Obama Administration. The people of Arizona, through their elected representatives, have simply taken the laws against illegal immigration adopted by Congress and made them into state laws that can be enforced by local authorities. They have found this necessary because it is estimated that over 50% of the illegal aliens that enter the United States and 50% of the illegal drugs that are brought into this country from Mexico now come across the Arizona border.
Since President Obama’s response to this crisis situation was to reduce the number of Border Patrol agents on the southern border with Mexico by 346 members, the people of Arizona were left with little choice but to take action on their own since the Federal Government has abdicated its responsibility to provide for the “common defense” of the American people. We should make no mistake here, what is happening on our southern border is an invasion that is robbing Americans of much needed jobs and subjecting our citizens to the violence that is being perpetrated by the Mexican drug cartels and spilling over into our country.
Despite the wildly exaggerated claims being made by the left, particularly those in media outlets like the major networks such as NBC and CNN, the Arizona law does not provide for the wholesale rounding up of Hispanics on every street corner in Arizona. The police must have probable cause to believe someone is in the country illegally or they must catch someone in the act of breaking another law. Then the authorities will have the right to detain the person and determine their immigration status. It is not the state that requires documents to prove legal status, it is a requirement of Federal law that all legal immigrants in the United States have written authorization from the Federal Government to be here.
If such authorization can’t be verified in the Federal data bases then the person involved is considered an illegal and is breaking the laws of both the Federal and State governments. They are essentially trespassing on American soil and charging them with this crime is no more a violation of their civil rights than arresting someone who has broken into someone else’s home. The charge that this will result in racial profiling is ludicrous. The American people are not as ignorant as the elitists on the left like to portray us. We are quite aware, even if Attorney General Eric Holder is not, that the vast majority of the people crossing the U.S. border from Mexico are not Irish and they don’t speak Gaelic. They are Hispanic and speak Spanish.
The Arizona law also tracks the Federal laws by making it a State criminal offense to smuggle people into this country illegally and for businesses to hire people who are in the country illegally. I personally believe that it is time for the Obama Administration to be reminded that the rights guaranteed by our Constitution are for those individuals who are citizens of our nation and those who have immigrated here legally. I do not believe that the Founding Fathers ever intended for them to apply to those who cross our borders illegally in order to violate our laws. Providing them with due process is fine, but giving them special consideration because the current Administration and Congress want to eventually make them citizens who will vote for candidates of the Democratic Party is unacceptable.
It is time that we start looking out for the Civil Rights of our own citizens. The State of Arizona is doing just that and any attempts to stop it from exercising its rights under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution are beyond the powers authorized in the Constitution to the President or Congress.
As for the proposed boycott of Arizona, my response is simply this. I personally intend to visit that beautiful state as often as I can and spend as much money as I can afford. I encourage all of my friends and readers to do the same. It is time for all of us who continue to fight to be free Americans to stand together. As Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together; else we shall all hang separately.”