SPLC should just out-source their articles to me, I would charge less, and it always follows the exact same format. It’s like a Mad Lib where they just change a few adjectives and scapegoat a different group. Then they make a proclaimation that they fail to address, and then end with some sort of South Parkian nonsense of “This is what I learned today…”<\/p>\n
As should shock virtually no one with two brain cells, SPLC is hyperventilating about the new Arizona law. I got the email alert this morning:<\/p>\n
Morris and I \u2014 and the entire SPLC staff \u2014 are outraged over Arizona’s new immigration law. We’ve spent our careers working against discriminatory policies such as blatant racial profiling. SPLC Legal Director Mary Bauer calls the law “a civil rights disaster and an insult to American values.” Please read Mary’s analysis on the dangers of this ill-advised law. <\/p>\n
With your help, we’ll continue to expose the racist agenda behind those who promote these kind of laws and do what we can to counter them. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s pretty clear from reading the “analysis” that a) they have no idea what “analysis” means, and b) no one over there bothered to read the damn law before writing this. So, let’s look at this in-depth anal-ysis<\/a>.
\n<\/p>\nArizona Immigration Law Violates Constitution, Guarantees Racial Profiling
\nBy Mary Bauer, SPLC Legal Director<\/p>\nArizona\u2019s newly adopted immigration law is brazenly unconstitutional and will undoubtedly trample upon the civil rights of residents caught in its path.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Awesome! Hell of a start! Makes me want to know why it is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
By requiring local law enforcement to arrest a person when there is \u201creasonable suspicion\u201d that the person is in the country illegally, Arizona lawmakers have created a system that guarantees racial profiling. They also have usurped federal authority by attempting to enforce immigration law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Is that what the law actually says? So if you just see a brown person at Home Depot you should arrest them? Somehow I missed that portion when I read it. What I saw was:<\/p>\n
For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency\u2026where 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\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As for the unconstitutional part, Byron York of the Washington Examiner <\/a>has done the best job of covering that aspect:<\/p>\n
Contrary to the talk, it is a reasonable, limited, carefully-crafted measure designed to help law enforcement deal with a serious problem in Arizona. Its authors anticipated criticism and went to great lengths to make sure it is constitutional and will hold up in court.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
That whole trampling the rights\/racial profiling thing….<\/p>\n
Critics have focused on the term “reasonable suspicion” to suggest that the law would give police the power to pick anyone out of a crowd for any reason and force them to prove they are in the U.S. legally. Some foresee mass civil rights violations targeting Hispanics.<\/p>\n
What fewer people have noticed is the phrase “lawful contact,” which defines what must be going on before police even think about checking immigration status. “That means the officer is already engaged in some detention of an individual because he’s violated some other law,” says Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri Kansas City Law School professor who helped draft the measure. “The most likely context where this law would come into play is a traffic stop.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Back to the SPLC:<\/p>\n
Quite simply, this law is a civil rights disaster and an insult to American values. No one in our country should be required to produce their \u201cpapers\u201d on demand to prove their innocence. What kind of country are we becoming? <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You produce papers when you did some other act that percipitated the legal contact. No law enforcement official can just randomly walk up to you and demand to see your papers. You can’t buy cold medicine without an ID lately, is it really so onerous to show an ID when you are talking to the police?<\/p>\n
We all know what the outcome of all this double-talk will be. People with brown skin \u2013 regardless of whether they are U.S. citizens or legal residents \u2013 will be forced to prove their legal status to law enforcement officers time and again. One-third of Arizona\u2019s population \u2013 those who are Latino \u2013 will be designated as second-class citizens, making anyone with brown skin a suspect even if their families have called Arizona home for generations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Damn, all about the brown folks, eh? <\/p>\n
As Latinos grow more fearful of law enforcement, they will be more reluctant to report crimes, and witnesses will be less likely to cooperate with police. Criminals will target the Latino community, confident their victims will keep quiet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Then riddle me this bad hair guy, why is it then that among “whites”, “blacks” and “other” a majority of folks in Arizona support this<\/a>? In my experience the people who are most against Amnesty are……..members of the Latino community who followed the law and emigrated here legally. No one wants to do the right thing, and then see some other person just cut the line. <\/p>\n
But wait, this law had to have been written by Hitler or something, right? Why, naturlich:<\/p>\n
Given the authors of this law, no one should be surprised about its intended targets. The law was drafted by a lawyer for the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), whose founder has warned of a \u201cLatin onslaught\u201d and complained about Latinos\u2019 alleged low \u201ceducability.\u201d FAIR has accepted $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund, a racist foundation that was set up by Nazi sympathizers to fund studies of eugenics, the science of selective breeding to produce a \u201cbetter\u201d race. The legislation was sponsored by state Senator Russell Pearce, who once e-mailed an anti-Semitic article from the neo-Nazi National Alliance website to supporters. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s always some smear or other with these people. They never bother to actually “analyse” anything, they just engage in ad hominems on people who might not be even tangentially involved in the discussion. <\/p>\n
And so Stan, did you learn anything today?<\/p>\n
Lawmakers in other states are eager to replicate this ill-advised law. Their frustration with current immigration policy is understandable, but this system must be remedied by our Congress, which should enact fair immigration reform. The federal government must craft a policy that repairs our broken immigration system and, at the same time, protects our most cherished values. States that attempt to follow Arizona\u2019s example will only succeed in sowing fear, discord and intolerance in our communities while undermining law enforcement and inviting costly constitutional challenges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n