Arizona And The Feds Spar Over Immigration

This week, the Supreme Court will begin its constitutional review of the new Arizona law mandating that during traffic stops, police check the immigration status for anyone suspected of being here illegally.  In doing so, anyone found to be illegal would be arrested. The Obama Justice Department argues that the Arizona law is unconstitutional because only the Federal government can enforce immigration laws.

First let me say that this is an obvious electioneering attempt by the Obama administration to secure the Hispanic vote in the Fall. And more importantly, I believe Arizona to be well within its rights to arrest illegals.  It is certainly no different than when a police officer conducts a background check for federal wants and warrants during traffic stops.  Certainly, in those cases, the Department of Justice absolutely "expects" the officer to make an arrest for a federal crime.  If so, then why shouldn't a police officer do the same for the federal crime of illegally entering and living in this country?

The Arizona Immigration Suit Could Backfire On Obama

In the opinion of most legal analysts, Obama's lawsuit against Arizona looks weak. Obviously, there's more politics involved in this suit than judicial judgment. Many see this move by the Justice Department as an attempt to garner Hispanic votes in the fall. But, that logic just might be as dumb as the lawsuit itself.

First of all, in poll after poll, not less than 60% of Americans support the Arizona law and it seems, once again, Obama is at odds with the general will of the people. While he may win some votes for the Democrats, he and his party just might lose a lot of Independent and swing-voters over this issue. He also seems to forget that, theoretically anyway, illegals can't vote. Further, let's look at some statistics. Only about 1 in every 4.5 Hispanics actually voted in the last election and, of that, 32% of those votes went to McCain and other Republicans.

Secondly, I doubt that all Hispanics favor the lawsuit or, for that matter, illegal immigration. This is especially true for those who came to this country the hard way, by playing by the rules and entering legally. Yesterday, a Colorado poll was released and 62% of Colorado Hispanics actually favored the Arizona Law while, overall, 61% of all Coloradans supported it (Click here to See Story: Poll: 61% of Coloradans want Arizona law here).

Third and lastly, unemployment and the economy will probably be a bigger issue than Arizona's law. Based on the recently released June Jobs Report, Hispanic men are unemployed at a 11.3% rate with that number rising in each of the last three months (Click here to See Report Data). Hispanic women were 11% unemployed and teen Hispanics are jobless at nearly 36%. Those numbers, alone, are good enough reasons for them to reject the economic policies of Obama and the Democrats and decide to vote Republican.

Just maybe, Obama is "acting stupidly" (to use one of his favorite phrases) in bringing this lawsuit against Arizona.

One very last comment. Ever since the Arizona law was passed, the big complaint from the President and the Democrats has been that it is unconstitutional because it would lead to ethnic profiling. However, the lawsuit that was filed never once mentions the issue of racial profiling. Instead, the suit was filed on the basis that the Federal government has sole authority to enforce immigration laws. Profiling can't be an issue because the law, in its own text, clearly forbids it. So, once again, we have Obama's rhetoric being pretty far from the truth. Of course, I would be totally chastised if I stupidly said something like: "He lied!"