Tuesday, June 26, 2012

SCOTUS Got it Right








Read the Supreme Court's decision here:  ARIZONA ET AL. v. UNITED STATES




The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Arizona immigration law is right on.  The original law included several parts that usurped or superseded Federal law.  These had to be eliminated.  I have never supported the part of the bill that allowed police profiling for the investigation of immigration status.  This kind of activity would be fine if it only affected illegals, but it’s probable that such a policy would also affect legal residents and citizens.

The Supreme Court did not strike down the portion of the bill allowing for the verification of immigration status secondary to detainment or arrest for another infraction.  This is completely in line with accepted practice.  Currently, an officer running an ID during a traffic stop, for instance, will check for warrants.  Adding immigration status to this check is completely appropriate.  Will it be abused?  Yes.  Authority is always subject to some abuse.  But it won’t see a greater level of abuse than warrant checks.

Unfortunately, some of the news media sources are misreporting this decision.  The Supreme Court has not upheld the secondary immigration check in the bill, it has simply chosen not to strike it down.  It has sent this portion back to the lower court to monitor for abuse.  If abuse occurs, this portion of the law can still be struck.  Also, they have not allowed for profiling as reported yesterday by the BBC.  This portion of the bill was struck down.

As for the Federal Government’s failure to uphold our nation’s immigration laws…  I’ll have to address that in another post.

BTW: For the record:  Illegal aliens are “illegal aliens” or “illegals”.  They are in this country in violation of the law, regardless of age or circumstance.  They are not “undocumented workers”, or “undocumented immigrants”.  They are non-citizens engaged in illegal behavior.  We can offer amnesty, we can change our laws, but we cannot change the fact that these individuals are violating our current law.

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