I have extensive links in my sidebar, including a very long list of links to news services from California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; you can learn about the issues along the border from local TV and newspapers in the area by clicking on the links. It is not hard to do your own research and learn more.
I am opposed to the Arizona law for one reason: the federal government should be securing the border, not the state government.
The problem Arizona faces is that the federal government refuses to do its job; given this, how can Arizona officials best protect the citizens of their state? In this situation, the law seems to make sense. I am sure those same officials who passed this law would also want the federal government to do its job, so Arizona wouldn't have to, but given that this is not the case, Arizona's officials are trying to serve the best interests of their state. Arizona's officials have been dealt a bad hand, and are playing it as well as they can.
US District Judge Susan Bolton recently ruled on the Arizona law, and some of the rationale behind the ruling is in Why Judge Susan Bolton blocked key parts of Arizona's SB 1070, dated July 28, 2010, of which we review excerpts:
The judge said the state measure was preempted by federal law because such checks would swamp federal immigration officials who are pursuing different priorities.
"The number of requests that will emanate from Arizona as a result of determining the status of every arrestee is likely to impermissibly burden federal resources and redirect federal agencies away from the priorities they have established," Bolton wrote.
The judge said the same problem would arise under the provision requiring police officers to check the immigration status of suspected illegal immigrants. "Federal resources will be taxed and diverted from federal enforcement priorities as a result of the increase in requests for immigration status determination(s)," she said.
Federal priorities are not what the Constitution says they should be, so maybe this law would be a means of redirecting the federal government so it does its job - not proactively, but reactively in support of a state that has had to step in.
The judge said the provision would also create an impermissible burden on immigrants who are lawfully present in Arizona.
Agreed.
Bolton concluded that there was a likelihood of irreparable harm to the interests of the federal government if certain provisions of SB 1070 took effect.
"The court by no means disregards Arizona's interests in controlling illegal immigration and addressing the concurrent problems with crime, including the trafficking of humans, drugs, guns, and money," Bolton wrote.
"Even though Arizona's interests may be consistent with those of the federal government, it is not in the public interest for Arizona to enforce preempted laws," she said.
Opponents of SB 1070 said the law would lead to illegal racial profiling by state and local law enforcement officials. Supporters countered that the state law was necessary to make up for lax and ineffective border enforcement by the federal government.
That last sentence nails it. The problem is not along Arizona's border, nor anywhere in or even near Arizona - the problem is in Washington.
Our "Constitutional scholar" President not only doesn't DO his Constitutionally-mandated job, I wonder if he even knows (or cares) what the hell his Constitutionally-mandated job IS.
Judge Bolton is not the one to come down on here - like Arizona's officials, Judge Bolton is trying to make sense of a situation that sucks.
If you want someone removed from office, Judge Bolton is not the one to impeach; impeach Obama. He is failing to do his job, which is to see that the laws of the land are faithfully executed, most emphatically including the job of protecting the state of Arizona from an illegal invasion which threatens to destroy not just Arizona, but vast regions of the United States, by allowing US territory to be controlled by hostile foreign powers, namely international drug cartels based in Mexico.
For further information, I suggest Next steps for the Arizona immigration law after court's preliminary decision and Judge Blocks Parts of AZ Law, Battle Not Over, from which I take the following vid:
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