George Will, on ABC’s “This Week,” hit the nail right on the head regarding Arizona’s new illegal immigration policy, just signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer:
“Reasonable suspicion” that the person is an alien. What does that mean, George?
WILL: Well, the Fourth Amendment says there should be no unreasonable searches and seizures, and we’ve generated volumes of case law trying to sort out what that means over the last century or so. So it’s not clear what that means. Let’s say this about Arizona. They have 460,000, an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants there. So before Washington lectures Arizonans on irresponsibility, perhaps Washington ought to attend to the central attribute of national sovereignty which is to control the borders. We are the only developed nation in the world with a 2,000 mile border with an undeveloped country and we have a magnet of a welfare state to the north.
So this is not Arizona’s fault. Beyond that, this should be said however. Reasonable suspicion is going to put upon the police of Arizona a terribly difficult job. This is what the governor said. “We must enforce the law evenly and without regard to skin color, accent or social status.” I don’t know how do you that. […]
WILL: Again, in defense of Arizona, large majority of Arizonans support this bill and a large majority of Arizonans are not, by definition, the fringe of the state. They are temperate, decent people with a huge problem.
What the Arizona law does is make a state crime out of something that already is a crime, a federal crime. Now, the Arizona police — and I’ve spent time with the Phoenix Police Department — these are not bad people. These are professionals who are used to making the kind of difficult judgments. Suspicion of intoxicated driving, all kinds of judgments are constantly made by policemen. And I wouldn’t despair altogether their ability to do this in a professional way. […]
GLICK: So put the 3,000 troops on the border as McCain suggests.
WILL: Build a fence, do what McCain suggests, and you’ll find that the American people are not xenophobic, they are not irrational on the subject, but they do want this essential attribute of national sovereignty asserted.
TUCKER: And where does the money come from for that, George?
WILL: It’s a rounding error on the GM bailout.
A number of major points come out of George Will’s remarks:
1) This is NOT Arizona’s fault; it’s the federal government’s fault. The first order of business for any government of any nation-state is to protect their borders from invasion; and the U.S. government has utterly failed to perform that function. Worse, up to this point, they have even perversely prevented the states from acting to save themselves.
2) Arizona’s illegal immigration policy is NOT some “racist” or “extreme” agenda; it is supported by an overwhelming majority of Arizonans:
The Arizona legislature has now passed the toughest measure against illegal immigration in the country, authorizing local police to stop and check the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 70% of likely voters in Arizona approve of the legislation, while just 23% oppose it.
These are reasonable people put into an unreasonable position by a bunch of extremists who are running our government and who are leading racist organizations such as La Raza (which literally means “the race” – and how racist can you get?).
The “racist extremists are on the other side from the decent Arizona people:
Whenever I’m asked about media treatment of the Tea Parties, I ask myself a simple question: What do you suppose the media would say if tea partiers were biting off people’s fingers?
A new question for today: What would they be saying if even a small group of Tea Partiers physically attacked the police at a rally?
Witnesses say a group protesting against SB1070 (Arizona’s harsh new immigration law) began to fight with a man who was for the controversial immigration bill.
Police tried escorting that man away from the scene, fearing for his safety, when they too came under attack by people throwing items, including water bottles.
And, yes, the police are under more than just rock and bottle attacks from protesters who want to prevent Arizona from keeping illegal immigrants outside their borders:
(CNSNews.com) – Law enforcement officials from the Arizona counties hardest hit by illegal immigration say they want U.S. troops to help secure the border, to prevent the deaths of more officers at the hands of criminals who enter the country illegally.
“We’ve had numerous officers that have been killed by illegal immigrants in Arizona,” Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said Monday at a Capitol Hill news conference. “And that shouldn’t happen one time.”
Babeu said the violence in Arizona has reached “epidemic proportions” and must be stopped. “In just one patrol area, we’ve had 64 pursuits — failure to yield for an officer — in one month,” Babeu said. “That’s out of control.”
I have seen a number of occasions in which a situation went way too far one way, which ultimately led to it swinging way too far the other way. I believe that the Democrats under Obama have done that very thing on virtually every issue under the sun. I would say the following: don’t act like a bunch of rabid leftwing extremists, and then cry when conservatives start acting like a bunch of rabid rightwing extremists.
3) Given the fact that the federal government – aided by a powerful special interest lobby, and aided even further by judicial activists who refuse to make a distinction between citizens and illegal immigrants – have refused to protect our borders, Arizona decided to do the job the federal government has refused to do. That means that Arizona police officers are going to have to step up and do a tough job.
Being a police officer means making judgment calls, and balancing peoples’ rights with enforcing laws every single day.
Bottom line: if you think police can’t make a reasonable determination whether someone is here illegally, I hope you don’t think law enforcement can make any other reasonable judgments (such as whether I’m driving drunk), either.
4) Finally, if we just built the damn wall like Bush tried to do, we wouldn’t be in this stupid mess to begin with. And the people who screamed about that wall have no right to complain with Arizona’s new policy now. They BEGGED for the tough new Arizona law.
The shrill cry of the leftwing was that a border wall was identical to the Iron Curtain. The only thing wrong with that is that it is beyond ignorant; the Iron Curtain was created to keep citizens from escaping to freedom; a border wall would protect out citizens by keeping illegal immigrants who have no right to be here out.
Liberals also cite the Posse Comitatus Act as preventing the powers of the federal government from using the military for law enforcement. But that begs the question: just how is protecting our borders from foreign invasion “law enforcement”? This is a clear situation in which our national security is at issue. The soldiers on the border would not be arresting American citizens; they would be detaining foreign invaders.
The Chinese built the Great Wall of China to keep the Mongols out; and it worked. And I’m just guessing that a people who put a man on the moon can build a damn wall that does the job.
Bottom line, I think the Arizona law probably ultimately goes too far. But like I said, pro-illegal immigration forces DEMANDED a law that went too far by steadfastly refusing any form of reasonable policy.
There is no reason whatsoever that citizenship should not be checked along with identity and residence, under the same conditions and situations in which it is reasonable to ascertain identity and residence. And if you are here illegally, your ass should be on the next bus out of the country – after serving jail time for violating our borders and breaking our laws. And the wall that we build should make sure you don’t come back.
Checking citizenship (or immigration status) at every arrest, or at every reasonable situation in which police check for identity, would take away the “racist” profiling issues.
Because, yes, I’m just as ticked off at the illegal immigrant Canadian or Irishman as I am at the illegal immigrant Mexican.
At the same time, building a wall to protect what is yours should be familiar to any child who has ever walked down the sidewalks of his or her own neighborhood. I’m not “racist” for building a wall; and it is frankly racist to suggest that I am. It amounts to basic common sense. And combined with a military patrol that would be able to identify and apprehend anyone climbing over that wall, it would make the issues surrounding “border enforcement” moot.
You can disrespect America’s borders as much as you want – so long as you remain on the other side of them.
Start Thinking Right 