About a week ago, I received the following email:
Paul –
Please write an article about the Arizona Immigration Law. I’d be interested in your opinion.
- Dave
Well, Dave, because you asked…
***
In my first year out of college I lived in Greece, where I played basketball for a team headquartered in Athens. Late one night, while taking home a Greek girl who I didn’t particularly like but who would occasionally bake semi-edible chocolate cakes for me, a Greek policeman standing at a roadblock waved my blue Hyundai to the side of the street.
I asked my companion what was happening.
She replied, “They just do this sometimes. They’re checking to make sure it’s okay for people to be here.”
I was nonplussed. I didn’t have my passport, probably because I hadn’t known that random stops by police were a potential hazard during an evening drive. And I knew that my powder-blue, Kansas-issued driver’s license didn’t carry much weight in a foreign country.
The police officer approached my side of the car and shone a flashlight in my face. He said something in Greek, which – because I didn’t speak Greek – I didn’t understand. I smiled hard and asked if he spoke English. He said he did, which made sense because, if you’re Greek, you sorta have to speak English if you want to communicate with any of the 6 billion minus 12 million people in the world who don’t speak your language.
Before we could start a conversation, my passenger leaned over, smiled at the policeman, and let loose a volley of Greek words. She then answered two of the cop’s questions and sat back in her chair. The officer wished me a good night and walked back to his post. I drove the girl home and added “good interpreter” to the short list of her positive attributes.
Later, when I told friends and family about the encounter, I played up my fear, saying, “I don’t know what I would have done if the girl hadn’t been there.” But, really, I said that to reassure everyone that A) living in Greece was more thrilling than it actually was and B) I had a social life that included women.
In truth I had, for a moment, felt unsettled – my brain leapt to that mediocre Claire Danes movie about disappearing to a filthy prison in Thailand. But I recovered quickly enough. From then on, I took my passport with me more often when I left the house, and I made my Greek teammates teach me how to say “Don’t shoot me!”, just in case the next policeman who crossed my path was of the corrupt, action-movie variety.
The Arizona Immigration Law to which Dave refers in his email does not purport to create encounters that are nearly as invasive as the one I faced in Greece. In Athens, I was eligible for a random search because I was alive and wearing human clothes. In Arizona, according to Wikipedia:
“The Act makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying the required documents, and obligates police to make an attempt, when practicable during a ‘lawful stop, detention or arrest’, to determine a person’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an illegal alien.”
From my research, nowhere in the Act does it state that, “Police officers should be jerks and should seek out darkish-skinned people and harass them because of their ethnic backgrounds.”
In fact, the law seems like a reasonable bit of legislation, especially in a state that, because of its location, is forced to confront immigration first-hand.
When I was living in Greece, the country was fighting its own battles with immigration issues. Africans, Albanians, and Middle Easterners were crossing the border, utilizing civil services, and committing more than their share of crimes.
The response was to enact – or endure, if one was the citizen being stopped – a relatively benign policy of roadside checkpoints. My experience in Athens, while inconvenient and mildly upsetting, seems, in retrospect, to have been provoked by reasonable concern.
There was a problem. The Greek government decided to address it.
One needs only to look as far as the lines on a map to know that illegal immigration is a potential problem in the United States. We, as a country, have not yet decided to allow anyone and everyone inside our borders. If we had made such a decision, there would be no lines separating our country from others.
Illegal immigration – and immigration in general – also provokes a visceral reaction from American citizens, especially when those citizens live in states most affected by that immigration. Their lives are influenced, one way or the other, by people coming from another land and either contributing to or taking advantage of the society shared by everyone already there.
Like the Greeks, Arizonians, or, more accurately, their leaders, responded.
The hullabaloo that has ensued because of State Bill 1070 was predictable, especially after it became obvious that Arizona’s governor, Jan Brewer, wasn’t going to quit the immigration fight. Those on the left denigrated the bill, calling it racist and discriminatory. Musicians, actors, and sports teams leapt into the fray and condemned the bill and anyone who didn’t hate it.
On the right side of that oh-so-proverbial aisle, the reaction was just as vehement. The more jerk-kneed of their breed wrote things like, “Send them back to Mexico!”, while politicians made stern faces calling for the President to address the issue immediately, because, you know, people with brown skin are a much more voter-relatable issue than climate change or financial reform.
Both sides called the other names, the US attorney general filed a federal lawsuit, seeking, in fine political form, to sidestep the issue by debating the legality of the law addressing it, and the People (in a “We The People” sense) got even angrier, likely because no one was addressing the actual problem.
Here’s the thing about problems: Usually, their solutions are going to make everyone a little unhappy. It’s difficult to unwind a problem completely. Problems, by their nature, introduce chaos into a system. When your girlfriend breaks up with you, your life doesn’t just “go back to the way it was before”. There are beers to be drunk, tears to be shed, and expensive therapy sessions to be had.
It’s true that police officers in Arizona are probably going to be more likely to ask people who are of Hispanic descent to prove their citizenship. Most of the people who come into Arizona illegally are Hispanic, so Hispanic people are the most likely to be in Arizona illegally.
If I were running a grocery store and the distributor told me that he was afraid some of the food he’d sent me had gone bad, and that he was pretty sure the grapes were the most likely culprit, I’d probably inspect the grapes before I got to the Fruit Roll-ups.
That doesn’t mean that race-related identification (if you’re a half-full type) or discrimination (if you’re a half-empty type) is good, or desired. It’s just that it’s logical, and probably going to happen. And it’s true that some of the police charged with enforcing the bill will be mean-spirited about doing so. But some of the police charged with enforcing regulations on window-tinting are mean-spirited about doing so. The verity of the law and the way that law is enforced provoke two separate arguments.
So, Dave, what I think is this:
At least the people of Arizona, and – by extension – their governor, tried to come up with a solution to the problem that is illegal immigration. People have the right to solve their problems as they see fit, whether in Greece or in Arizona or on an Earth-like planet near Alpha Centauri. Other people, in turn, have the right to not live there, or to do their best to change the laws.
Arizona’s solution may not be perfect, and there may soon be a bunch of people who will wish they had a cake-making native with them if they get stopped for speeding, but we can’t fault them for trying to solve a problem.
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It’s a slippery slope, I think. I happen to be a white male in my thirties, so this law would likely never affect me. But for example, most serial killers are white males who live alone. So should I be required to have my basement searched on a weekly basis to make sure I don’t have anyone tied up down there? Once you take the first step towards this type of regulation, it’s difficult to stop.
and now we wait for pragmatism’s response..
Finest point made towards the end, and one that I hadn’t considered in such a light: ” But some of the police charged with enforcing regulations on window-tinting are mean-spirited about doing so. The verity of the law and the way that law is enforced provoke two separate arguments.”
outstanding point. In an attempt to tread lightly on such volatile ‘race’ related issues, your explanation and reference to a foreign culture’s utilization is superb. seriously. Though many have used this as a means to a) highlight racism, and b) back-door parlay into the long controversial racial profiling, the arguments, ironically, have been ‘black and white’ ~ focusing on the ‘appearance’ of the law rather than it’s intent, or, more poignantly, the cost and effects of illegal immigration / persons on the far larger tax paying constituency of this country.
You touch on both the law, currently utilized cousins of it (profiling) and the actual reasoning behind it. kudos.
I look forward to a series of comments calling you a racist for having the audacity not to decry the bill as the worst thing since the Holocaust.
You grapist.
Over/under on pragmatism responding before 5 PM CDT?
Finally, someone who is open-minded about both sides of the argument and is able to analyze the issues without being blinded by prejudice or party politics. Thank you, Paul.
You walk a fine line taking the “controversial” stance of being in favour of the AZ immigration bill, but you pulled it off well. I could see why some people responded negatively to your thoughts about rebuilding Haiti (even though I agreed with you, for the most part) but I think even Jesse Jackson would struggle to find this viewpoint offensive/racist
Completely agree Paul. Many criticizing the law do so without offering a better solution to the PROBLEM that still exists. The Greece story is great.
It seems a mere happy/sad coincidence that the majority of illegal aliens are of Hispanic decent. If the political & socioeconomic situations of Mexico-Canada were reversed and Canadians were invading the greater Seattle area, would a single person have a problem an exactly-worded bill for the state of Washington?
Also I wonder why they don’t crack down more on businesses employing illegal aliens? That seems like it would help reduce the incentive for living in AZ as a whole over hoping to happen upon them one-by-one during traffic stops.
Upon clicking the link on your most recent tweet, I was fairly certain I was going to be reading a much different response to this immigration debate. Who knew you had such a keen sense of reality vs. mass media hype? Specifically, I appreciate the slightly libertarian laissez-faire attitude summarization to Dave, asserting that everyone has the right to fix their issues as they see fit.
In other news, had I known you were willing to hang out with girls you didn’t like (or may not like,) purely based on chocolate confectionaries, I would have posted long ago offering some of my famous Mississippii Mud gourmet cupcakes. Heh.
I had this discussion with a few co-workers, all of whom had immigrated from other countries, and all but one agreed with the point behind Arizona’s law and said they had no problem carrying their green card, visa, or passport with them in order to abide by the rule and prove their legality — the same reaction as you felt in your experience in Greece. It’s not about being racist, it’s about legality. And if the grapes were indeed the most likely culprit, anyone using logic would inspect the grapes… Nice article Paul!!
There is just one problem with this future law…it requires something of hispanics that will not be of whites: the burden of proof of citizenship. (this does not apply to legal residency as those people are required to carry green cards anyway). One of the main things they emphasize when you become a citizen (as I did several years ago), is that according to federal law, once you are a citizen, you no longer hold the burden to prove that you are one. The big argument then, is that this new law contradicts other laws and rights put in place for citizens, and in turn takes a right away from a certain group of citizens.
Your grape analogy is slightly misused, as the grapes should be seen as overstocked, not rotten. As Mike D pointed out, perhaps the “stocking” issue needs to be handled from the business angle.
C’mon prag… That lacked your normal vitriol and disdain for all things Paul. What happened to the magic?
Mike D: Fremont, Nebraska (girlfriend’s home town) recently passed a law like what you are talking about. They made it mandatory for all businesses in the town to make sure the employees they hire are legal citizens. This makes perfect sense, yet there was a huge uproar (including plenty of protests). Anyway, just an interesting tidbit. I agree with you…makes much more sense and prevents racial stereotyping. It makes every person, no matter skin color, verify that they are legal to work.
Man, someone should have taken me up on that bet, I was going for the long OVER… Hi praggy!!
Oh – I stand corrected, didn’t realize this was on PDT. Welp. Guess I win.
/puts money back in wallet
Let’s take a page out of the Greek government’s book…Great idea.
I have two problems with this law, one was already mentioned by Anon in which people who are legal citizens but are NOT legal aliens (or illegal aliens) are now forced to make sure that they also always have their identification on them, just in case…
The other problem that I have with the law is that it lessens the standards of freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures which we thankfully have nicely in our 5th Amendment. Generally in order for a police officer to seize a person the Supreme Court has found that they need to have probable cause of some wrongdoing. However, my reading of this law lessens this standard to mere “reasonable suspicion” which prior to this law had only been allowed for so-called “Terry” stops where the police have a reasonable suspicion that an individual is in the process of, or about to, commit a violent crime. In now being able to be stopped for “reasonable suspicion” of being illegally present in America (likely meaning brown skinned and speaking Spanish) will inevitably result in people being stopped who simply left their wallets at home – or don’t have any identification (which isn’t a requirement for a citizen) and wanted to spend the 10 bucks required to obtain a state ID on food or some other luxury as they are free to do – that are then subject to a full arrest so that their citizenship can be proven at the station. This then allows the police to conduct a full search of the citizen (police are permitted to search the entirety of an individual and anywhere within his reach pursuant to an arrest, as has been ruled by SCOTUS), and this subsequent search is, in my mind, completely counter to the protections which are supposed to be afforded to all individuals by the 5th Amendment, and at least to me the freedom from being essentially arbitrarily searched is one that we should not so quickly give up.
I, however, fully recognize that illegal aliens are here illegally, and we have every right, and probably duty, to deport these individuals who have broken our laws when thousands of people are going through the legal channels and not merely breaking our laws to be in this country. In doing so our Federal Government has completely failed because at this time the Latino vote is far too important for either party to actually try to do anything which they think might upset this important voting bloc potentially costing them their cushy job where they can just do nothing.
I live in AZ and I can tell you how it’s been effecting me ….some of my favorite musical artists are now boycotting our state. I’d like to hear Paul’s thoughts on that, especially as a music lover. To me, this a misguided attempt to punish AZ. Wouldn’t RAGE be better off playing a show IN Arizona, rather than playing one in LA about AZ?
A police officer’s job is to keep the peace, not make judgements on whether people are here legally or illegally. It’s a good idea since they’re already on the street, but this won’t end well.
Anon: “it requires something of hispanics that will not be of whites: the burden of proof of citizenship.”
Please cite the language of the law that requires hispanic people to prove their citizenship.
All the law really does is allow AZ police to ask aliens to show the documents which federal immigration law already requires them to carry.
Matt: “In now being able to be stopped for “reasonable suspicion” of being illegally present in America”
Actually, the AZ law only applies to people who already have been stopped for some other reason. You could wear a sign on your back that says “Here Illegally” and the cops can’t stop you on that basis alone.
Great stuff, very even handed, 4 once! : )
BL1Y -
If a police officer suspects a person of Hispanic origin to be here illegally, they may ask for papers, that a citizen is not required to carry. What do you think that same officer would then do when the citizen cannot furnish any paperwork? These people would then have to carry around their passport so that they would not be harassed and investigated even further, something that just will not happen to a white person.
Anon: Let’s look at the actual language of the bill, not just what you imagine the bill to say (since only the former is given legal affect):
“FOR ANY LAWFUL CONTACT STOP, DETENTION OR ARREST MADE BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL [...] WHERE REASONABLE SUSPICION EXISTS THAT THE PERSON IS AN ALIEN WHO AND IS UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES, A REASONABLE ATTEMPT SHALL BE MADE, WHEN PRACTICABLE, TO DETERMINE THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF THE PERSON”
So, the police officer may not simply ask any random person that looks illegal for their papers. They must already be involved in a lawful stop of that person. But, even in a lawful stop, this section puts no burden on the person in question to prove their immigration/citizenship status. Instead, it puts a burden on law enforcement to determine your immigration status.
Moving on, there’s also a section that talks about a requirement for immigrants to carry their papers:
“IN ADDITION TO ANY VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW, A PERSON IS GUILTY OF WILLFUL FAILURE TO COMPLETE OR CARRY AN ALIEN REGISTRATION DOCUMENT IF THE PERSON IS IN VIOLATION OF 8 UNITED STATES CODE SECTION 1304(e) OR 1306(a).”
For those of you unaware, “United States Code” refers only to federal laws. So, this section says you are now in violation of a state law if you are violating the federal requirements to carry your papers.
And if you’re curious, here’s the federal requires, 8 USC 1304(e):
“Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him pursuant to subsection (d) of this section. Any alien who fails to comply with the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon conviction for each offense be fined not to exceed $100 or be imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both.”
There is no requirement for a US citizen, no matter how much they look like they just sneaked across the border to carry any sort of identification or papers. Now, you can of course argue that racist cops are going to detain Hispanic people longer while trying to track down their immigration status. But, if you carry a driver’s license, non-driver’s license, a tribal ID card, or any other US ID, you’re presumed to not be an alien, so the vast majority of citizens are safe. And, racist cops don’t need this bill to harass Hispanic people, they’ll do it anyways.
What do Mexicans and cue balls have in common? The harder you hit them, the more English you get out of them.
Here are the 2 simple facts you need to know about me. 1. I live in AZ. 2. I am the least political person on the planet.
Everyone seems to get so pissed off about SB1070 and I just don’t understand it. I live here in the state and the country 100% legally, so the bill doesn’t change my world at all. So my open question to any opponent of the law is: if you are a person that is here illegally, why shouldn’t you be forced to show documentation to prove your immigration status?
As with Paul’s story, I have travelled to Germany many times (legally) and been asked to show my passport. As a guest in someone else’s house (country) I never had any issues with those requests.
Everyone seems to jump to point out that now all these cops are going to racially profile anyone that is Hispanic. But what this argument fails to address is that if you have a cop that will racially profile anyone, he’s going to do it whether SB1070 is on the books or not.
There is a simple story that happened here in AZ that no opponent of the bill will ever tell. Without going into too much detail, here are the very basics: There was an undercover police drug sting operation happening about 10 miles from the AZ State Capitol building. At the very same time, there were about 1,000 demonstrators gathered at on the grounds of the AZ State Capitol in their opposition of SB1070. The demonstrators became unruly and as a grand finale to their protest, 4 “opponents” of the law repelled from a 60-foot high boom crane to unveil a huge banner that read “STOP HATE, STOP 1070″. All police units within a 15 mile radius were dispatched to get the demonstrators off of the crane and help with crowd dispersal. It was shortly after the crane incident that the undercover sting went bad and the cops involved put out panicked calls for back-up only to have them go unanswered because their fellow officers were 15 miles away dealing with some idiots that think crane signage is the best way to handle their SB1070 issues.
Here is the best resolution to everyone’s issues with this particular piece of legislation: Be here legally, and you won’t have any problems at all, regardless of skin color.