Read Arizona: The Fourth Reich? : The Other McCain for some facts you won’t get from the mainstream media.
Let’s begin by invoking what I call the Sonny Bono Principle. The California Republican lawmaker (the brainier half of “Sonny and Cher”) was once asked to debate illegal immigration and memorably responded, “What’s to debate? It’s illegal.”
. . .
Yet we are constantly told that the anybody who calls for stricter enforcement our Ted Kennedy-sponsored liberal immigration laws is a dangerous right-wing extremist — and probably a racist, to boot. (This phenomenon gave rise to what has become known as The Peter Brimelow Rule, which defines racist as “anyone who is winning an argument with a liberal.”) All of which is nonsense, of course, and utterly ignores the horrifying impact that non-enforcement has on states like Arizona, which has been nearly overwhelmed by a tsunami of illegal immigration.
. . .
Every time Americans have gotten a chance at an up-or-down vote on immigration, they’ve supported stricter enforcement, and yet politicians — especially Republican politicians — have gone out of their way to avoid framing the issue of illegal immigration in the kind of clear terms that would allow voters a chance to vote for what the majority really want: Strict enforcement of current law, enhanced border security, and aggressive measures to deport those now here illegally.
Predictably, false teacher Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution” Wallis and the Sojourners bunch can’t even bring themselves to accurately note that this is illegal immigration. Using their logic, India and China could send boatload after boatload of people to the U.S. and we’d be obligated to take them all in, no questions asked, and provide food, clothes, education, health care, etc. If Jim & Co. care that much about these people, I wonder how much of their own money they send to these poor countries now?
John McCain had a good response (though he’s waaaay late in offering it). He and too many other Republicans have been too soft on this issue.
“If the president doesn’t like what the Arizona Legislature and governor may be doing, then I call on the president to immediately call for the dispatch of 3,000 National Guard troops to our border and mandate that 3,000 additional Border Patrol [officers] be sent to our border as well,” McCain said at a news conference Friday in downtown Phoenix, according to a report in the Arizona Republic.
“And that way, then the state of Arizona will not have to enact legislation which they have to do because of the federal government’s failure to carry out its responsibilities, which is to secure the borders.”
Eternity Matters 
According to the polls, 70% of us Arizonans favor the law. Unfortunately, our form of governance has long since slipped beyond “what the people want” to “what the loudest voices demand”. We’ll see if that plays out here, too.
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Yep. Let’s see: Nothing un-constitutional about it. The vast majority likes it. Why the debate?
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Well, there is potential Search and Seizure conflict with being able to stop people on suspicion of being here illegally. There’s also precedent for privacy conflicts (despite the fact that there is no specific mention of privacy in the constitution).
The argument against that, of course, is the whole “reasonable suspicion” ideal with stops in general (i.e, if you’re swerving there may not be probable cause, but reasonable suspicion to at least warrant the stop).
I don’t live in Arizona so it doesn’t affect me, but my curiosity is what reasonable suspicion will mean for stopping people. How does one cause suspicion of being in the country illegally?
For me, it does raise concerns of infringements on actual citizens rights and that’s the portion of the law I’m a bit on the fence with. I’m generally not a fan of the government being given any kind of extra authority to stick it’s nose in someone’s personal business, regardless of the level.
That said, the rest I take zero issue with and would tend to agree that it would all be moot anyway if the Federal government did it’s job and properly secured our borders.
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“How does one cause suspicion of being in the country illegally?”
I’d like to know the answer to that one myself.
According to Rep. Bilbray clothes are a tip off.
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Love that Sonny Bono quote, that was great.
🙂
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Thank you for this timely article. I posted something about this a few days ago. I don’t care what McCain’s lifetime rating by the American Conservative Union is. VOTE HAYWORTH OR DON’T VOTE AT ALL!
http://www.jdforsenate.com
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It is amazing that, faced with a serious primary challenge, Amnesty Juan suddenly discovers his inner conservative, swears he has never been a maverick, and wants troops on the border now.
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