Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, signed into law SB1070 which states, “The legislature finds that there is a compelling interest in the cooperative enforcement of federal immigration laws throughout all of Arizona. The legislature declares that the intent of this act is to make attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local government agencies in Arizona. The provisions of this act are intended to work together to discourage and deter the unlawful entry and presence of aliens and economic.” The law continues, “For any lawful contact made by a Law Enforcement Official or Agency of this State or a County, City, Town or other political subdivision of this State where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person.”…“A Law Enforcement Officer, without a warrant, may arrest a person if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed any public offense” and “notwithstanding any other law, a Peace Officer may lawfully stop any person who is operating a motor vehicle if the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe the person is in violation of any civil traffic law and this section.”
Of course, this isn’t the entire law, but the parts that will be used to ask people for their “papers, please.” There are stiff penalties for people found to be smuggling humans across the border and increased penalties if an “illegal alien” commits another crime.
This new law attempts to “pick up the slack” of the Federal government which has been lax on enforcement of immigration laws; however, it ignores the real problem: unjust and unfair immigration laws. The US Constitution grants Congress the authority to “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” There is nothing “uniform” about current immigration/naturalization laws. There is one law for people from Cuba, another law for refugees, another law for countries with “good” relations with the US and another set of laws for every other country in the world. How is that “uniform”?
This law is not about ensuring immigration laws are properly enforced. It is an attempt to moonwalk into the Third Reich. Many of the arguments used in Nazi Germany to force-out, round-up and harass the Jewish people sound similar to the arguments used against immigrants, both legal and illegal.
Just read the following from a 1936 Nazi newsletter (aimed at those who did not accept anti-Semitism) and replace the word “Jew(ish)” with the word “immigrant” and “German” with “American”:
Argument: “The Jew has better prices than the German businessman.” — Counterargument: Any crook can sell junk. Jewish crooks have driven thousands of German businessmen to bankruptcy with the glittering trash in their department store palaces. When someone does get good products more cheaply from the Jews than from Germans, it is only because the united Jewish firms force down prices from the manufacturers, which means reducing workers’ wages. He who has bought good products cheaply from the Jew should never forget that the curse of a German worker and the tears of his hungry children come with them!
Argument: “The Jew is a human being too!” — Counterargument: “Of course the Jew is a human being too. None of us has ever doubted it. But a flea is also an animal. But not a very pleasant one. Since a flea is not a pleasant animal, we have no duty to protect and defend it, to take care of it so that it can bite and torment and torture us. Rather, we make it harmless. It is the same with the Jews.” {Joseph Goebbels).
I’m not saying that Arizona’s Police Officers will put immigrants in Concentration Camps, gas chambers, slave labor camps or the like; I’m simply pointing out the similarity between the new “papers, please” law in Arizona and the laws from the Third Reich that led up to the murder of 6 million Jewish people and a World War.