I love Bill Maher. Now you know of course I am a liberal who enjoys satirical political humor. Recently, while watching some of "Real Time with Bill Maher" footage on youtube I hear him say "We no longer have political left. In recent years Democrats have moved to center and Republicans have moved to mental institution" (I am not sure if these are the exact word but along the same lines). Recent health care legislation has proved this point to some extent but the recent outrageous legislations in Arizona have proved it to be exactly right. I love my friends in Arizona, but it is the legislature I can not stand. It looks that as soon as Janet Napolitano left for serving Federal government, the state has been completely taken over by complete morons. The recent legislations about buying weapons without permits was the beginning and the most recent about letting police officers checking the legal immigration is the epitome of humiliating, ridiculous legislation in the state's history. I read someone saying that "after not recognizing MLK day as a state holiday, this signing new immigration law is second black day in the state'e entire legislative history".
I completely agree with the issue of illegal immigration in Arizona. With border fencing in CA and NM, AZ has become the channel for illegal immigrants to walk through. No one is in denial of that. But as far as I know, immigration is the Federal issue. The recent legislation in AZ challenges the Federal authority saying that if Feds won't do it, we will. This is might a good calling for Feds to intervene and push a comprehensive immigration reform which is much needed. However, the point is not that. The point is is the police force eligible to understand the issue of immigration? The state is saying that the police will be trained to understand this issue. I have few points for them.
1. Isn't the police force already burdened with the duty of maintaining law and order and looking for extremely serious offenses such as robbery, homicides, sex crimes, property crimes?
2. Isn't there a department called Homeland Security and Border Safety who works on immigrations issues?
3. How is the training going to help the police to understand the immigration? First of all there are tons of documents and procedures that are involved in the immigration process. If someone is on work permit or student visa and is in process of obtaining new visa or extension or permanent residency, getting new documentation can take months. So if police catches someone who is in between in statuses, will they be able to comprehend the situation?
4. Another problem is the notion of "reasonable doubt". How do you define that? How does an illegal immigrant look? It means that the police is going to look for certain races and ethnicities even thought governor denies it. There are Caucasians who are not citizens and non Caucasians who are citizens and any one can easily understand who will be asked for papers.
5. This is going to increase mistrust of police department. For the safety of any city the harmonious relations between police force and residents is much needed. If one can not trust police then who can they trust?
6. Arizona has many vehicle thefts. Now, if someone keeps the immigrations documents in the car and it is stolen, will the police take the responsibility of getting new documentation to the person?
7. With the new gun law it is easy to get guns in this state now. So I am afraid there might be increase violence against police force.
All and all this is a completely ridiculous piece of legislations which I hope will not stand in the court. There will be lot of petitions and I really hope the constitutional test will prove the illegitimacy of this law. Hoe funny is that the Constitution is violated by the ones who always cite the holiness of it.
Given the current situation in the state I am very happy that I will be in blue state soon. Those of who don't understand the importance of being in a blue state just know this, in a blue state legislature not in an asylum!
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