Papers, please

Arizona just passed a new law about immigration enforcement. What this new law does, primarily, is require local law enforcement personnel to detain anyone who they reasonably suspect is an illegal immigrant. It also requires legal immigrants to carry their immigration papers with them.

From my point of view, there are a few big problems with this. 1

1. Don't the cops have better things to do? Seriously - let's leave immigration enforcement to the feds, and let the local guys deal with, well, local crime. I'm sure the police in Phoenix or wherever have plenty of theft and burglary and domestic disputes and DUIs and drug problems to deal with. If we add in, "needing to take someone into custody because you think they're illegal and hold them until we get it cleared up with the feds", I suspect the amount of time cops have to deal with the other stuff will be reduced. Contrary to what some people believe, "dude who crossed the border illegally and now works mopping floors at McDonalds" is not really an immediate threat to anyone's safety. "Dude beating the crap out of his wife" is.

2. Uh, so, what exactly is "reasonable suspicion?" That's what the bill says - if Officer Smith pulls over John Doe for rolling through a stop sign and has "reasonable suspicion" that Mr. Doe is in the country unlawfully, then Officer Smith has to check that out. So, okay, what's going to lead to a reasonable suspicion? It can't possibly be "Dude's got a hispanic name," because, uh, there's quite a number of people in Arizona who are Hispanic, and not all of them illegally. It's quite possible to be hispanic, and your family's been here for centuries and you're white as can be. It's also possible to be hispanic, and your family's been here for centuries, and you're not white. Or you could look hispanic, have the name, and be a new resident of this country but perfectly legal. Somehow, I strongly suspect that in many places, Carlos Chavez who looks Mexican (but his family's been here since the 1700's) is much more likely to get hassled under this law than Carlos Chavez who looks white (but his family's been here since the 1700's). This is because this is an incredibly stupid law, that basically kicks a door wide open and invites law enforcement officers to let their personal biases be used as an excuse for detaining people.

3. In the unlikely event that this law is not struck down as being grossly unconstitutional and also really rather stupid - you know what's going to happen? A lot of Arizona's illegals are going to leave Arizona. Some of them might go back to their country of origin, sure, maybe. More of them will head west to California, or Nevada, or maybe even Utah - or head on over here, to New Mexico.

Now, I generally feel fairly apathetic about illegal immigration. On the one hand: I do think that we need an orderly process that allows our government to know who's in the country. On the other hand: I don't really see who all these people getting hurt by illegal immigrants are, and I think that if we all the sudden come down real hard, it's going to hurt an awful lot of American citizens, because there won't be anywhere near as many people washing dishes and mopping floors and mowing lawns and putting up drywall, and there's not really a lot of American citizens waiting in line for those jobs.

So part of me wants to say: Eh, New Mexico gets an influx of super cheap labor willing to do jobs I'm not willing to do? Fine. Another part of me, though, does remember that they like any humans will need places to live and medical care and so on. So is there an impact on the community? Yes. Is it a positive or negative impact? I don't know - I'm inclined to say it's fairly neutral (because they need medical care, yes, but they also work and buy stuff).

Regardless of how it effects my state, though - this AZ law is really stupid. If it is enforceable, it's going to A) hurt local communities by distracting police from the rest of their police work, and B) open a great big huge door with lights and arrows and a giant welcome sign for discrimination lawsuits.