Immigration
Arizona recently passed a very strict anti-illegal-immigration law which is the toughest ever seen in this country. More or less, it encourages a police state where racial profiling is allowed. Everyone is up in arms, and the Democrats have sacrificed the energy bill they have been working on for the last few months (along with Republican Graham) in order to move immigration to the top of the list.
As someone who believes deeply in freedom, it might be expected that I think the law is a travesty. I don't.
The issue is this: states need to be able to control immigration in order to maintain their responsibilities to their citizens. You cannot allow free and open immigration, it would be destructive to the developed nations of the world, with the overall outcome being very much negative.
The US has long relied on a certain level of illegal immigration to help the economy, provide low paying jobs that keep the US competitive in certain areas and keep prices down, and acts as a subsidy for the incredibly mismanaged and heading-for-bankruptcy Social Security program. You see the thing is, these are always quoted as the reasons illegal immigration needs to be more or less allowed, but really what they are arguments for is much better regulation and administration. Stop illegal immigration, but allow work visas. Have programs where those consistently working in the US, with clean records etc, can eventually apply for naturalization. And of course, completely rebuild Social Security, because we are pretty much all screwed on that one even with the pay-in of illegal workers.
The second argument is really more of a feeling which no one talks too much about - we are a nation of immigrants, how can we turn anyone down? Well - we can, and we have to. We are now a mature state with a welfare system and now nationalized healthcare. Allowing huge levels of immigration would seriously harm the economy. For reference, and I think this is relatively fair, see what happened when Germany recombined the 2nd world East Germany with the 1st world West Germany.
So what about this bill? Well, the fundamental premise that state cops are allowed to deal with illegal immigration seems pretty damn sensible to me. Why should they be banned from dealing with it? It is not an issue that affects states? Are states not stakeholder in whether illegal immigrants are living in their state? Basically, this premise makes sense to me. The law does actually require probable cause - so the myth of the Latino family going out for a drive and getting pulled over and then kicked out of the state because someone forgot a driver's license is just that: a myth. Or at least it should be, though I acknowledge the possibility of abuse, it give no more power to State cops than federal cops and agents currently have. Then again, I dislike many state cops and think a large percentage of them have very twisted views of reality... so perhaps abuse of the law is likely, but I have to go with the grounds here that State cops, with probable cause, should be able to enforce the prevention of illegal activity. Flawed as cops are, that is their whole purpose of being after all.
But from then on it all goes really wrong.
First, it imposes strict immigration regulation without first establishing a new and better alternative (work visas etc) because, well, that does have to be done at the national level. So what you have here pretty much comes across (and may indeed be linked to) racism, nationalism, nativism and maybe some other unhelpful isms from dark corners of men's minds: lets just kick out the people we don't like.
Second, is that the bill goes too far. Letting State police treat illegal immigration as illegal immigration does at some point make sense. I can't think of another category of illegal activity that State officers are required to turn a blind eye to. But the bill then goes on to do crazy things, like tell citizens to sue their counties if they don't think enough is being done on illegal immigration.
So in the end you have a law that pushed it too far in a state dominated by conservative republicans. Shocking. Even McCain, whose seat is in jeopardy, came out in favor of this thing. Oh how far you have fallen ex-Maverick.
This is one of those stupid State vs. Federal govt. moments, and I feel a lot more coming on. Much of this country cannot (quite rightly) stand the current administration, just as much of it could not stand the one before. The state went too far one way, the Federal government may go too far the other. We shall see.
As someone who believes deeply in freedom, it might be expected that I think the law is a travesty. I don't.
The issue is this: states need to be able to control immigration in order to maintain their responsibilities to their citizens. You cannot allow free and open immigration, it would be destructive to the developed nations of the world, with the overall outcome being very much negative.
The US has long relied on a certain level of illegal immigration to help the economy, provide low paying jobs that keep the US competitive in certain areas and keep prices down, and acts as a subsidy for the incredibly mismanaged and heading-for-bankruptcy Social Security program. You see the thing is, these are always quoted as the reasons illegal immigration needs to be more or less allowed, but really what they are arguments for is much better regulation and administration. Stop illegal immigration, but allow work visas. Have programs where those consistently working in the US, with clean records etc, can eventually apply for naturalization. And of course, completely rebuild Social Security, because we are pretty much all screwed on that one even with the pay-in of illegal workers.
The second argument is really more of a feeling which no one talks too much about - we are a nation of immigrants, how can we turn anyone down? Well - we can, and we have to. We are now a mature state with a welfare system and now nationalized healthcare. Allowing huge levels of immigration would seriously harm the economy. For reference, and I think this is relatively fair, see what happened when Germany recombined the 2nd world East Germany with the 1st world West Germany.
So what about this bill? Well, the fundamental premise that state cops are allowed to deal with illegal immigration seems pretty damn sensible to me. Why should they be banned from dealing with it? It is not an issue that affects states? Are states not stakeholder in whether illegal immigrants are living in their state? Basically, this premise makes sense to me. The law does actually require probable cause - so the myth of the Latino family going out for a drive and getting pulled over and then kicked out of the state because someone forgot a driver's license is just that: a myth. Or at least it should be, though I acknowledge the possibility of abuse, it give no more power to State cops than federal cops and agents currently have. Then again, I dislike many state cops and think a large percentage of them have very twisted views of reality... so perhaps abuse of the law is likely, but I have to go with the grounds here that State cops, with probable cause, should be able to enforce the prevention of illegal activity. Flawed as cops are, that is their whole purpose of being after all.
But from then on it all goes really wrong.
First, it imposes strict immigration regulation without first establishing a new and better alternative (work visas etc) because, well, that does have to be done at the national level. So what you have here pretty much comes across (and may indeed be linked to) racism, nationalism, nativism and maybe some other unhelpful isms from dark corners of men's minds: lets just kick out the people we don't like.
Second, is that the bill goes too far. Letting State police treat illegal immigration as illegal immigration does at some point make sense. I can't think of another category of illegal activity that State officers are required to turn a blind eye to. But the bill then goes on to do crazy things, like tell citizens to sue their counties if they don't think enough is being done on illegal immigration.
So in the end you have a law that pushed it too far in a state dominated by conservative republicans. Shocking. Even McCain, whose seat is in jeopardy, came out in favor of this thing. Oh how far you have fallen ex-Maverick.
This is one of those stupid State vs. Federal govt. moments, and I feel a lot more coming on. Much of this country cannot (quite rightly) stand the current administration, just as much of it could not stand the one before. The state went too far one way, the Federal government may go too far the other. We shall see.
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