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Show Me Your Papers - Coming to Nevada?!?!
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was in town last Friday to speak at a media roundtable organized by the Nevada News Bureau.
Mr. Arpaio has championed a tough new bill in Arizona, which will become law during the summer, that will allow the police to ask people if they are in the country legally. If that individual is here illegally then the individual will be turned over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be deported back to their home country.
This bill is controversial because a lot of people think it will lead to widespread racial profiling of Hispanic Americans. Others think that this bill is exactly what is needed to stem the tide of illegal aliens pouring over our borders, which in turn will reduce the strain on Social Services and produce jobs for people out of work.
The bill has been written so that a person can only be asked if they are here legally if the police catch or question the person in relation to criminal activity. If you would like to read the bill in full you can do so here.
I would like to know what you all think of the bill. Is there a chance it will come to the great state of Nevada? How will that affect The Strip? Please keep your comments clean regardless of whether you agree or disagree with this bill.
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May 10th, 2010 1:20 pm
I think that it’s great! I would love to see every state follow this lead!
May 10th, 2010 1:27 pm
What’s wrong with enforcing the law? Everyone is concerned it will lead to racial profiling, first - let’s see if that actually happens, second - punish the officers that do it.
Hurt the strip? Maybe at first and the union membership may drop for a few days, but they would be replaced by out of work citizens.
Honestly, how do you racially profile Hispanics in Arizona? Or even Nevada, that would be a full time job by itself.
May 10th, 2010 1:42 pm
It’ll be interesting to see if the AZ police make the mistake of pulling somebody over without cause.
May 10th, 2010 1:45 pm
Good points, Wayne. As I’ve said privately, any cop who gets caught racially profiling will torpedo the whole shooting match.
May 10th, 2010 2:43 pm
In my opinion it’s about freakin time!! If we could close the borders, make citizens out of the illegals that are already here, don’t you think we would have a lot more tax money, etc. We all know that they are working under the table, not paying taxes and wiring money to THEIR country and not spending much of it here.
This is a good start people, but not nearly fast enough. We have been talking about this for over 15+ years now and nothing has stopped the mess. Of course we know that immigration reform should have come from leadership reform which we seriously lack, so we’ll just hope for the best!
In a low estimation, 10,000 illegal aliens are added to the United States population each day with a total of more than 22 million and that’s just the ones that are counted. Not to forget the babies that are being born which totals millions each month as well. Check out this website it will freak you out! http://immigrationcounters.com/
May 10th, 2010 3:53 pm
The law is unlikely to be abused simply because of the following:
Just one bad arrest (detaining a legal citizen without cause, only because they are suspected of being an illegal) will bring a lawsuit.
Hence, law enforcement will be trained to err on the side of being very careful.
Should it pass court muster (and my research says it will), and if it is a reasonable success at reducing the number of illegals (and problems associated with including but not limited to strains on emergency rooms and county hospital budgets, strains on school systems, other social services, gang crime) then you’ll see other states rush to pass it.
Hence the current administration’s desire to legalize them all (IE turn 12 million people into probably Democrat Party voters) before the success of the AZ law is realized.
Illegal is illegal. Europeans who badly want to come to the U.S. have to go through years of hoops and expense. Latin American’s simply need to make it over the border and start living collecting the benefits of citizenship.
And before I get labeled a racist for saying that: I live (by choice) in a neighborhood that is easily two-thirds Hispanic. I’ve been known to shop at Mariana’s (Mexican grocery chain here in town). I like Hispanic people. And guess what: A significant number of Hispanics who are citizens actually agree that something needs to be done about illegal immigration.
To those who feel that the U.S. should have a relaxed “come one, come all” to illegals, I only ask you this:
Would you get on a plane headed toward the U.S. if no one boarding the plane had to show any papers or be checked in any way, shape, or form? I doubt it. Then why be in favor of letting people enter the country through any method without showing papers and being checked out?
Food for thought.
PS 80 degrees and sunny. Great day to be Living In Las Vegas!
May 10th, 2010 3:56 pm
Insightful commentary as always, Ted.
May 11th, 2010 1:43 am
Enforcing the law, any law, is not a racist act. Being in this country ILLEGALLY is a crime. There are legal steps set to LEGALLY migrate to the United States of America, those steps MUST be followed.
The federal government has FAILED to take sufficient steps to secure our borders and specifically protect the people of Arizona.
I fully support the effort of the State of Arizona to protect its citizens. I hope more states join this effort before it’s too late … if it isn’t already. Our race baiting president likes to inaccurately state the proposed law, that way he doesn’t have to take responsibilty for the current failed system.
As a recently retired police officer, I feel this law would be easy to enforce without violating rights.
May 12th, 2010 9:17 am
@Ted
I respect your opinion of course but I respectfully disagree with 2 points you brought up.
Just one bad arrest (detaining a legal citizen without cause, only because they are suspected of being an illegal) will bring a lawsuit.
Hence, law enforcement will be trained to err on the side of being very careful.
I respectfully disagree with this. Police brutality has happened in the past and still continues to happen. I think being beaten in the head with a Billy Club and getting knocked unconscious is much more offensive than being detained for 30 minutes. John McKenna springs to mind as one of the latest victims. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/13/maryland.police.beating/index.html
Latin American’s simply need to make it over the border and start living collecting the benefits of citizenship.
I respectfully disagree here as well because I don’t know what benefits you are pointing out. An illegal immigrant can’t vote, can not get a legal Social Security Number, can not collect Medicare.
Let’s discuss.
@ Paul
Our race baiting president likes to inaccurately state the proposed law, that way he doesn’t have to take responsibilty for the current failed system.
Paul. Respect your opinion of course but can you give a little more detail as to what makes the President a Race Baiting one?
J
May 12th, 2010 9:55 am
Am LOVING this comment thread. I hope Ted and Paul respond to your response, Jacob.
May 13th, 2010 6:53 am
Also let me be clear. I have been to Europe several times and I would never think of going to the EU or any Asian countries without my proper paperwork and or passport. I was almost denied entry back into the UK while touring through the EU and I was there legally! So I totally understand the importance of being a legal resident or visitor of whatever country you are visiting.
J