Finally someone sees the light: Arizona's new immigration law
Posted Sunday, April 25, 2010, at 12:35 PM
I have to admit I was a bit torn on this one at first.
Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer signed into law on Friday an immigration law that requires immigrants (all immigrants) to carry their alien registration papers with them at all times.
It requires local and state law enforcement to question people if there's reason to suspect that they are in the U.S. illegally. It also requires employers to utilize some form of verification service (like e-verify) to ensure that the person they're hiring is legally eligible to work in this country.
That includes people who hire "day laborers". The law also sets state charges for human smuggling.
My first impression of this law was that it would be a new and pretty tough law to crack down on illegal immigrants. My main issue with it was the requirement to carry your alien registration papers with you in case you're asked by the authorities for them. That, to me, seemed like too close to the Nazi practice of "Show me your papers". And I didn't care for that one bit.
After reading it, and doing a modicum of research, I've come to realize that it is more an extension of federal laws that already exist. All of the items in this bill already exist as federal laws. This bill just makes it so that state and local police not only have the authority to enforce them, they have the responsibility to enforce them.
So, how do I feel now about the requirement to carry their alien registration papers? Turns out that 8 USC 1304(e) states that "Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him pursuant to subsection (d) of this section. Any alien who fails to comply with the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon conviction for each offense be fined not to exceed $100 or be imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both." So this, too, was already part of the federal law and has been for quite some time.
As it turns out, any legal immigrant faces possible deportation for any and all offenses that they commit (including speeding).
This bill is only 17 pages (why can't Washington, D.C. do that?) so take a look at it. Here it is.
I don't really see what the major issue is with it, unless it's being opposed by those that have yet to read it.
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