Reasonable Suspicion

A good friend and I have been discussing the new Arizona bill on immigration. He lives in Arizona and contends that it is not as bad as the press makes out. I, of course, contend that is a bad idea. So today, I offered to actually read the thing. And I am going to encourage you to do the same and draw your own conclusions. I should point out that neither of us are strangers to the United States immigration process. For my part, I have been through it, both as a resident alien and now a citizen and as a contractor. So I can speak with some knowledge when I say the system is broken. Not only broken but also…well…elitist. And that was before all the provisions put in place to enhance security following the events of September 11, 2001. The process to residency and citizenship is not a straight line (even if you marry a citizen), it is expensive, both in time and cash that has to be laid out, and it involves a lot of hurry up and we lost your paperwork, go back three spaces gamesmanship. So it is little wonder there is a class of people, living in the United States that cannot be bothered, or are not able to go through the process. Some of them happen to come from south of the border, which is where states (and the people thereto) like Arizona and Texas get upset.

Being in the United States illegally is hardly a new thing. There have been illegal residents in the US since…well, before Columbus, and there are likely to be illegal residents here long after the current brouhaha has settled down. It will come as a shock to many to learn that, illegal or not, they are protected by the Constitution. I actually got that question wrong on my citizenship exam. The question was who does the Constitution protect? The answer is all the people. Not all the citizens, not all those who are here legally, but all the people.

So, with that in mind, here are some of my issues with the Arizona law, as well as the regulations passed in my own backyard a couple years back for similar reasons.

The argument goes, that because the federal government is not doing enough to round up and deport these illegal aliens, the local jurisdictions are being force to take matters into their own hands. The reasons are the normal ones you would expect to hear – the illegals are using up the health care dollars, costing too much money to school their anchor babies, causing an increase in crime, lowering property values. I could go on. In most cases, the issue revolves around money. Specifically, the misperception that they (the illegal aliens) are getting more than their fare share while decent, hardworking, upstanding Americans are being shafted. Even the pejorative term anchor baby, which the Constitution refers to as a citizen, highlights the lack of understanding and even knowledge of what is really going on. It would be hard to refute the anecdotal evidence of this group of illegals moved into the house next door to me and trashed the place, and we have all heard of someone who it has happened to, so many someones that to me it is more urban myth than fact, although I have seen the results of one such house. Similarly with so many Americans without health insurance, it is hard to think that the health care costs can be simply attributed to one group. (I ran the numbers once and if they are correct, the population of illegal residents might be responsible for less than 1% of all health care costs. But no one wants to actually sit down and do that sort of logical evaluation). And that is where I start having issues.

From the bill: the intent of this act is to make attrition through enforcement the public policy of Arizona. It goes on to say The provisions of this act are intended to work together to discourage and deter the unlawful entry and presence of aliens and economic activity by persons unlawfully present Now, I have no problem with the whole unlawfully present aspect of the bill, but I do have serious issues with the words used, especially the attrition through enforcement. That just really does not sound friendly. In fact, it almost sounds vindictive.

But what really got my attention was the amendment of article 8, section 11-1051 B, which reads: FOR ANY LAWFUL CONTACT MADE BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY OF THIS STATE OR A COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE WHERE 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. (capitals from the bill).

Not, once we arrest you for breaking the law (which is section C), but only with reasonable suspicion. The first words out of my mouth were reasonable to whom?. Because reasonable in Phoenix is certainly not the same as reasonable in Bisbee, no matter what colour you want to paint those glasses.

To me, that one section points out all the things that are wrong with the bill. Even though the rest of it is about what you would expect to find anywhere. Reasonable suspicion.

What Arizona has done is throw a match into a tinder dry area and started an uncontrolled brush fire. But it has done it in such a way that rarely happens when immigration law is codified and enforced at a national level. It has introduced a law, no matter how well meaning that says we don’t want your kind here. And rightly, the Hispanic community is interpreting your kind as them, whether they were born in East L. A. or Juarez Mexico. Whether they can prove they are living in the United States legally or not. Because despite all the language in the law about checking with this or that Federal agency, the purpose of the law is to so scare those that have neither the legal resources to pursue a false claim against the State of Arizona or have the language skills (and let’s face it, when it comes to the law, most of us who speak English fluently do not have the language skills) to understand that perhaps they might have a case.

In short, it is a Jim Crow law, with a different wrapper on it. And regardless of what you might think or believe, nothing good can come of it.