While the Obama administration focuses on prosecuting law enforcement officials, Arizona has passed sweeping legislation to curb illegal immigration.
While the pleas from American citizens in Arizona and other states fall on deaf ears in Washington, DC, the violence and crime at the U.S.-Mexico border continues unabated.
In yet another example of violence spreading north of the border, a deadly Mexican gang is actively plotting to kill U.S. law enforcement officers and their families in Texas, according to a Department of Homeland Security alert that warns U.S. cops to wear body armor and vary routes to avoid being tracked.
The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars to fight Mexican drug cartels yet they continue to be the nation's largest supplier of illicit narcotics and violent Mexican gangs have expanded into every region of the country, including idyllic rural areas.
"This is hardly earth-shattering news since Mexico has long represented the single greatest drug trafficking threat to the U.S., despite Uncle Sam's multi billion-dollar effort to halt the northbound flow of narcotics. The costly investment has failed miserably, according to a federal report that reveals Mexican heroin production has actually doubled in the last year," state officials from the public-interest group Judicial Watch.
In the absence of federal enforcement a Mexican border state — Arizona – drowning in an illegal immigration pandemic has passed legislation that bans "sanctuary city" policies and makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. without proper documentation.
The law marks an unprecedented effort by an American state to take immigration matters into its own hands since immigration offenses are currently violations of federal law that cannot be enforced by local police. But lawmakers in Arizona are fed up with the enormous toll that illegal aliens are having on their state as the feds sit idly by and fail to secure the southern border, according to a Judicial Watch report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.
In the past few years they've chipped away at the crisis with other measures, though this is by far the most hard-hitting and definitely among the country's toughest immigration enforcement laws. The measure, passed last week by the Arizona House and previously approved by the Senate, grants police the power to stop and verify the immigration status of anyone suspected of being illegal and requires foreign nationals to carry proof of legal residency. This includes the man known as "America's sheriff" Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
Sheriff Arpaio has been targeted by the Obama Justice Department and Democrats in his own state because of his tough immigration enforcement policy.
Illegal aliens will be charged in state court with trespassing and anyone — documented or undocumented — seeking work from a road or sidewalk will also be criminally prosecuted. Drivers who pick up illegal alien day laborers will also be punished when the law kicks in.
Predictably, immigration advocates are incensed and have called on Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto the measure which they assert is racist. The legal director of an influential national group La Raza that represents day laborers calls it an "unconstitutional, unwise and odious bill" created by "demagogue leaders" who have become folk heroes for "white supremacists" throughout the country.
Arizona lawmakers have long searched for ways to curb the colossal impact that illegal immigration has had on their state. A few years ago they enacted a law that punishes businesses that hire illegal immigrants, though the state has not penalized a single employer. Legislators allocated sufficient funds (about $5 million) to enforce the law but a chunk of the money remains largely unspent by counties throughout the state, according to the JW report.
How is the establishment of so-called sanctuary cities not nullification of federal law?
Look at the bill a little more carefully. The individual is in Arizona illegally therefore trespassing. In most state constitutions the state sets the requirements for citizenship and residency therefore it seems likely the state is appropriately setting local rules and not nullifying an enumerated federal responsibility.
Mickey G,
There is nothing called trespass into a State in any legal context.
States do not set requirements for citizenship and residence; Congress does.Staes cannot nullify(whatever you mean by nullify) a federal responsibility.
Are you one of the Tea party Activists? (going by your apparent ignorance).
I might be paranoid, but won’t this law lead eventually to requiring a national ID? Considering the explosion of government control and particularly of a surveillance start and access to our personal and private information, this is NOT a good sign!
This law does not bode well for us Californians because, for a certainty, it will create “illegal immigrant flight” – thousands of illegal immigrants will flee Arizona for destinations in California. Adding even more illegals will strain our existing social services, health care services, prostitution services, gambling games at truck stops, check cashing for 20% on the dollar services, franchised drug dealers, money forwarding services, Mexican grocery stores, mom and pop 7 Eleven stores – a host of government services and businesses will be overwhelmed and there’s nothing we can do about it. California won’t pass any laws controlling illegal immigrants as Arizona did – in fact, official government policy is to deny we have any illegals living within the state.
Recently, the Mayor of Los Angeles told news reporters: “We have no illegal immigrants within L. A., our Latino citizens are all hard working, tax paying, honest – and legal – citizens”. The Mayor of San Diego claimed they have no illegals either – unless, of course, Federal funding was to be provided to local cities to help illegal immigrants find housing and then it might be remotely possible San Diego might have one or two illegals living within its borders. So, where are these illegals living if not in L. A. or San Diego – they might be in Bakersfield – although even native born American citizens wouldn’t cross a border to live in Bakersfield.
The only city who officially admits illegal immigrants live in California is Berkeley, but they insist these illegal immigrants are being exploited by white society (and you Asians and black folks needn’t look so smug, they consider you to be white when it comes to this issue). They even have a theory in Berkeley explaining how these Mexicans ended up hundreds of miles north of their homes for the purposes of being “exploited by white society”. A clandestine operation headed by Draymore Glugg of the Evil Capitalist’s Foundation runs snatch and grab operations inside Mexico, one minute you’re sleeping on your cot in Mazatlan, dreaming your innocent dreams of universal brotherhood for all mankind, the next minute you’re drugged, bagged and smuggled north in large UPS trucks to work in Napa, the Central Valley and even Berkeley.
So technically you’re illegal but not through your own fault, it’s America who is truly at fault, we want to exploit you, you don’t want to be exploited, you just want to return to Mazatlan – after first picking up a few colorful souvenirs on Fishermen’s Wharf to commemorate your exploitation. In fact, Berkeley residents have generously funded, through a $50 million Federal grant obtained from Washington via Dianne Feinstein’s office, the construction of 15 illegal immigrant “Daywork “ spas, the dignified alternative to hustling jobs below the radar for cash, no checks and with the net pay never including any withholding for nonsense like Social Security taxes. Basically, they consider men standing around Shattuck avenue drinking wine out of paper bags and trying to get picked up by contractors driving those huge pickup trucks with dirty license plates to be “exploitive” (bet that accusation surprised you, right). So, they’ve built convenient drive through facilities complete with waiting rooms filled with comfortable recliners, real Starbucks in the coffee machines, free showers, shaving facilities, steam rooms, even free cable TV and internet access for illegals to pass their time waiting for contractors to pull their big pickup trucks into the air conditioned drive through tunnel.
Berkeley has even gone out of their way to provide adequate housing while the illegals are being ruthlessly exploited, modest 3,500 square foot condos have been built for illegals – (ok, paid through another Federal grant, but this time it was Barbara Boxer’s office) – who want and need free housing but are denied it due to the discrimination practiced by the Americanos – and no stingy 12 illegals to a single room either, no more than 2 adults to one condo – these aren’t the dorms at the University of California after all and these illegals aren’t undeserving college students and the children of selfish American taxpayers. Generous residents have even volunteered to have their roofs replaced every two years and their lawns resodded every 6 months at outrageous prices in order to demonstrate to illegals that not everyone wants to “exploit” them mercilessly, at least not the gentle and compassionate citizens of Berkeley.
For those of us Californians who don’t live in Berkeley, we have no solutions to offer other than advising illegals to avoid the company, paid or unpaid, of Big Rosy – she has certain bacterial problems you might not want to deal with tomorrow morning. We have begged Sacramento to take legislative actions similar to Arizona, any action which might help with illegal immigrant flight from Arizona.
“What has worked in the past will work for this problem“ according to our elected folks in Sacramento, so they raised our taxes. And they’re probably right to do so, whenever we have a problem here in California, Sacramento always deals with it by raising our taxes. So, starting May 1st, the sales tax rate will go to 13%, except in the Bay Area where the add-on and local BART tax will nudge the present sales tax rate to 21.5%. Since they’re in the Bay Area and also subject to the BART tax, the Mayor of Berkeley claims raising the sales tax rate for the third time this year is grossly unfair to illegals – and, of course, it is also very – wait for it – “exploitive”.
NO PUEDO CREER QUE ESTO ESTE PASANDO Y EN ESTE TIEMPO. COMO PUEDE AUN EXISTIR TANTO RASISMO E IGNORANSIA. ESTO ES UN CASO DE RASISMO Y NADA MAS. QUE DIOS LOS PERDONE POR LO QUE ESTAN ASIENDO.
[...] Illegal Immigration Becomes Arizona State Crime Intellectual Conservative – Apr 20th – 09:11 [...]
[...] Si bien la administración de Obama se centra en el enjuiciamiento de funcionarios encargados de hacer la ley, Arizona ha aprobado una ley de barrido para frenar la inmigración ilegal. Si bien los motivos de los ciudadanos estadounidenses en Arizona y otros estados caen en oídos sordos en Washington, DC, la violencia y el crimen en los EE.UU.-México frontera no ha disminuido. En otro ejemplo más de la creciente violencia al norte de la [. . . ] URL del artículo original http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2010/04/20/illegal-immigration-becomes-arizona-state-crime/ [...]
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