KVNUFTP

Yesterday, pre-show, Jon, Tyler and I had a passionate debate over AZ’s new immigration law.  Jon and Tyler thought the law was great, I called it fascist.  I’m standing by my assessment, even more so after reading up on the bill more this morning.  What I’m seeing:

Rep. Stephen Sandstrom (R-Orem) has gone on record saying he can’t wait (of course carefully masked as “we can’t wait”) to draft similar legislation for Utah, without seeing first how AZ will even implement this draconian law, or how it will impact local law enforcement.  Sandstrom even made the argument that Utah has no choice but to implement a similar law, because AZ’s law is so crazy, it will drive all the brown people he’s so afraid of straight to Utah! Won’t someone please think of the frightened conservative representatives from Orem?  Someone?! It was disgusting to watch, to say the least.

The portion of the bill drawing opposition from civil rights organizations (emphasis mine):

For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of 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, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation.  Any person who is arrested shall have the person’s immigration status determined before the person is released.  The person’s immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 United States code section 1373(c).  A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not solely consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution.

How exactly does a law enforcement agent determine “reasonable suspicion that a person is an alien” without basing that assessment “solely” on “race, color, or national origin”?  Well that’s a great question.  And the answer is, they probably can’t.  Xenophobia and talk of the “brown invasion” aside — waaaaaay aside, because this is America… or at least it was last time I checked — and even forgoing a debate over the idea that we should be comfortable with the idea of American citizens having to “carry papers” to be displayed (yes, this law won’t effect just illegal immigrants, but naturalized citizens, those with legal work status, and basically anyone guilty of “walking while Mexican” in Arizona), there is still a debate to be had over implementation, enforcement, and the consequences of institutionalizing racial profiling.  In Salon, lawyer James Doty writes:

The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (known mainly as SB 1070) requires that police officers determine the immigration status of a person “where reasonable suspicion exists” that the person is in the country illegally. The officer must then verify the suspect’s immigration status with the federal government.

As many have noted, the most obvious (and provocative) question raised by this provision is, “What do illegal immigrants look like?” They’re probably Hispanic, but so are 30 percent of Arizona’s residents. So unless the law authorizes the stopping and questioning of any person who looks darker than the average Caucasian, there needs to be some other criteria that set apart illegal aliens from lawful residents.

But so far, no one has come up with any. When asked what other factors an officer might use to single out an unlawful resident, [Governor] Brewer replied, “We have to trust our law enforcement.”

Via Newsweek, Georgetown University Law Center professor David Cole is quoted:

In practice, it is inevitable that this law will lead to racial profiling.  People don’t wear signs saying that they are illegal immigrants, nor do illegal immigrants engage in any particular behavior that distinguishes them from legal immigrants and citizens. So police officers will not stop white people, and will stop Latinos, especially poor Latinos.

Even Rep. Curt Bramble (R-Provo) has noted the dangers of this bill:

“I spoke to the president of the Arizona Senate in St. Louis last week,” Bramble said. “He couldn’t tell me what the practical solution was to balancing due process and probable cause under the new statute without intruding on citizens’ civil rights.”

And radio host/Fox News contributor Mike Gallagher answers them all:

[...] it’s racial profiling, to be sure, cops know if there’s a van full of dark-skinned men with lawnmowers packed into the back of a pick-up truck…that’s what they’re talking about.

I think that about sums up how this law will be implemented.

And one final, far more trivial aspect of this you’d think those with a limited government bent would be in tune with:  Arizona cannot afford to enforce this law!  In fact, they’ve already asked for federal funds to train 15,000 law officers for implementation.  Why is Arizona asking for my hard earned dollars to enforce a law that is unenforceable without impeding on the civil liberties of 30% of the state?  Why can’t Arizona live within it’s means!  What socialists!

I can see one good coming of the passage of this law: it’s just crazy enough, and poorly thought out enough, and just plainly insidious enough to put immigration reform on the federal level back in the spotlight, before any other wingnuts get any more bright ideas like this one (cough cough Carl Wimmer cough).

(For related insight on how Arizona went from “swing-state” to “GlennBeckistan,” Talking Points Memo has a nice history up.)