The Big Winners in Arizona’s Immigration Law? Lawyers: Michael Gerson

Friday, April 30, 2010

Michael Gerson, adviser and speechwriter to President George W. Bush, wants to see the United States establish “effective border enforcement” for the Southwest. But the new immigration law adopted by the state of Arizona is not the way to go, Gerson argues.

 
The country needs a guest-worker program that allows immigrants from Mexico to enter the U.S. in an orderly manner so they can provide for their families while at the same time “allowing border authorities to focus on more urgent crimes…,” he writes. But the chaotic state that today characterizes the border has resulted in Arizona going too far in trying to take control of “American immigration policy—an authority that Arizona has seized in order to abuse.”
 
The new law is likely to result in legal immigrants and American citizens being harassed by law enforcement—a development that only will lead to expensive litigation.
 
“If this vague law is applied vigorously, the state will be regularly sued by citizens who are wrongfully stopped,” Gerson insists. “But if the law is not applied vigorously enough, it contains a provision allowing citizens to sue any agency or official who ‘limits or restricts the enforcement of federal immigration laws.’ Either way, lawyers rejoice.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
A Test of Arizona's Political Character (by Michael Gerson, Washington Post)

Comments

Laurence 14 years ago
This is one of the best laws ever been passed in the United States history.If you have been living in California,you will understand why.No rocket science to figure this out.
Gabriela 14 years ago
All we have to do is look to the past to see concrete examples of how giving local police the authority by "Reasonable Suspicion" to make immigration arrests is a FAILURE and a waste of tax payer money. Operation Wetback 1953 and the Chandler Roundup 1997 that happened IN ARIZONA are both examples! With huge discretion, police will inevitably fall into the practice of racial profiling, leading to mass deportations or “round-ups” of Hispanic-looking people and the erosion of the civil rights of citizens and non-citizens alike. “Operation Wetback” devised in 1953 was carried out by not only border patrol, but state as well as local police. Operation Wetback led to the common practice of deporting undocumented immigrants along with their American-born children, who were by law U.S. citizens. The agents used a wide brush in their criteria for interrogating potential aliens. They adopted the practice of stopping “Mexican-looking” citizens…” What can also be translated as "Reasonable Suspicion" in Arizona's SB 1070. The same kind of massive effort to obtain and deport illegal immigrants has already occurred in ARIZONA!!! In Chandler, Arizona in 1997 the local police conducted a series of roundups to find violators of federal immigration laws, but ended up randomly stopping U.S. citizens and at least one local elected official, leading to an investigation by the Arizona Attorney General. The official report on the investigation concluded that police stopped Hispanics without probable cause, bullied women and children suspected of being illegal immigrants and made late-night entries into homes of suspected illegal immigrants, among other violations. In 1999, the Chandler City Council unanimously approved a $400,000 settlement of a lawsuit because of police roles in the roundup.

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