Here’s a quick list of people who aren’t backing Arizona’s authoritarian new law, which really is representative of the worst we Americans are capable of (this, and sterilizing rednecks):
From what I have read in news reports, I do have concerns about this legislation. While I don’t believe Arizona’s policy was based on anything other than trying to get a handle on our broken borders, I think aspects of the law, especially that dealing with ‘reasonable suspicion,’ are going to put our law enforcement officers in an incredibly difficult position. It could also unreasonably single out people who are here legally, including many American citizens. Throughout American history and throughout this administration we have seen that when government is given an inch it takes a mile.
Surely the American would be so overcome by gratitude for the chance to earn a living, he or she would have no problem working for a wage that can’t feed a family, right? They would thrill at the chance to work with no health insurance or accurate records kept of the hours they toiled away the week in sometimes less-than-safe environments. No doubt, Americans would throw themselves into this labor with the same enthusiasm and gusto that built this country all those years ago! I can hear it now, “Honey, I am off to sell oranges on Laurel Canyon Road, under the 101 overpass! I’ll be back in about 13 hours!”
Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato:
It is a smear to blame low-skilled immigrant workers from Latin America for creating a crime problem in Arizona.
The crime rate in Arizona in 2008 was the lowest it has been in four decades. In the past decade, as the number of illegal immigrants in the state grew rapidly, the violent crime rate dropped by 23 percent, the property crime rate by 28 percent. (You can check out the DoJ figures here.)
Census data show that immigrants are actually less likely to commit crimes than their native-born counterparts, as I unpacked a few months ago in an article forCommentary magazine titled, “Higher Immigration, Lower Crime.”
And my former governor, Jeb Bush:
“I think it creates unintended consequences,” he said in a telephone interview with POLITICO Tuesday. “It’s difficult for me to imagine how you’re going to enforce this law. It places a significant burden on local law enforcement and you have civil liberties issues that are significant as well.”
Bush said he understood the anger that prompted the bill, but that immigration should remain a federal issue.
“I don’t think this is the proper approach,” he said.
A slew of lefties have complained about the law as well, but aren’t they always complaining about the government treating minorities like crap?