AZ Anti-Immigration Law SB 1070 – Fascism

55 thoughts on “AZ Anti-Immigration Law SB 1070 – Fascism”

1. Its called “Illegal” immigration for a reason. It is illegal. Get it? Everyone in the world is welcome in the US but you must do it legally. It really isnt that hard to understand. I realize it is not easy to become a citizen but too many people have been free riding for years and years and now its time to call it what it is. A crime. You are stealing from the US and we cant afford it anymore if you havent noticed. Immigrants good, illegal immigrants bad. Simple. Get over it.

   1. Thanks for your comment.

      No one is disputing illegal immigration being a problem, what is being disputed is as Joe Scarborough, a former GOP Representative, states is putting a target on the back of the 1 out of 3 Arizonans who are of Hispanic descent. Not only those resident Arizonans, but anyone visiting the state that doesn’t fit the state’s profile of a “legal” resident could be subject to this requirement.

      What this law does is it says if you are brown or “different” looking we can stop you at will without cause and demand that you show your proof of citizenship. How would you like it Mickey if this were to happen to you because of your ethnic characteristics?

      1. Its only a target if you’re caught breaking some other law. And you know, I’m tired of hearing people squawk about how much it costs to be a citizen of the US. If it costs so much then why pay the cost? Becoming a citizen does cost something, after all, freedom isn’t free. I know because my uncle paid for mine and many like me with his life fighting as a Marine in Vietnam. What are you willing to sacrifice? Also, no one talks about how much it costs the citizens of this country to be a citizen. Every year I have to register my car, I have to pay for this or for that, I have to carry a driver’s lisence in my purse, I have to pay for insurance for my car, I have to pay sales tax every time I go to the store, I have to pay income tax every time I go to work, I have to and you know what? I do. I pay these things because I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN. EVEN ON MY WORST DAY IN AMERICA, I AM STILL MORE BLESSED THAN OTHER PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD AND I WOULD GLADLY SHARE WHAT I HAVE BUT PLEASE STOP STEALING MY FREEDOM BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOUR OWN!!!!!!!

         1. WTF are you talking about you didnt fight for your freedom either so stop trying to make it seem like you did fight for it because you didnt you dumb bitch

   2. Yes, i understand that these people are called “illegal” but have you ever though of how they get there food? how they pay their rent? how they buy there gas? Well why dont you smack yourself in the head and realize that they are doing all this with OUR AMERICAN MONEY!!! they hop the border mow lawns for a living and feed our government with their money. Who will be their to mow our lawns without immigrants? what about clean our hotels? pick our crops? Exactly, NOBODY! so wake up and actually look at the good side of aliens. Have you people not read the 4th amendment? maybe you should take a look at it and then fix your comment.

      1. My last comment is directed towards Mickey.

      2. Alex that’s all well and good, but it is still illegal. So let them use the system where they can come here legally to work, follow the rules, and gain full citizenship. If that process needs to be tweaked, let’s do it, but let’s not turn a blind eye just because they provide cheap labor. That’s basically what your argument comes down to — you want an easy source of cheap labor so our laws be damned.

2. Yes, again I ask you, why don’t liberals care about illegal immigration? It’s ILLEGAL! If you don’t like the Arizona plan, come up with a better one!

   And why would legal Hispanic workers stop work any more than anyone else? Sounds like you are profiling to me.

   1. Thanks for your comment.

      Good idea forgot. You’re right rather than just having those directly impacted by the law, I’d suggest that all Arizonan workers with a conscience, be they the 1 out of 3 state residents who are legal residents of Hispanic origin or African Americans or legal residents on H1-B visas or Whites or Asians or American Indians or any other class of people stand up and protest the stupidity of this law.

      1. So I assume you have a better proposal in mind or do you not see illegal immigration as a problem?

         Instead of protesting this law maybe you should protest anyone who hires an illegal immigrant and takes advantage of that fact. By doing nothing you are only encouraging that exploitation.

         1. Labor laws already require that you show proof of citizenship. The enforcement of these laws needs to be enhanced and monitored.

            1. Yes labor laws, but what about the cash economy? ILLEGAL immigrant = ILLEGAL hiring.

               I agree there needs to be more enforcement, but I always hear that most illegal immigrants are here to work. So if labor laws already require citizenship, then what are they going to do here? There needs to be more enforcement of labor law AND immigration law to rid the demand and supply of illegal labor and illegal immigrants.

         2. The Arizona law includes penalties for employers of illegal immigrants…as does current federal law…enforcement is the issue.

            And labor laws DO NOT require citizenship status…they require citizenship, permanent residency or a work visa (and probably several other little legal tidbits that only a lawyer could love).

      2. “or any other class of people” — so telling MadCityMan. I don’t consider myself a Class of any group. I’m an individual. You and Barack should stop dividing people up and viewing them as groups of races and classes.

         1. Hi Forgot,
            You can’t have it both ways. This law goes against a class of people – brown people and it was instituted by your party as a way of dividing America by attacking Hispanics, who look and speak with a difference. If you truly believed what you said in your comment, you would find this law as repulsive as many Americans do, including GOP luminaries at the national level including Senator Lindsay Graham of S.C., former FL Gov Jeb Bush (yeah the one who was the President’s brother) and current teabagger Republican candidate for FL Senate Marco Rubio.

            I’m glad that you see yourself and those around you as totally classless…I’m all for equality.

            Thanks for your comment.

            1. Although Arizona certainly has a large population of Hispanics who are here illegally…I would be willing to bet there are more than a few illegal immigrants from the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. So yeah, let’s stop everyone on the street. Just like one of those drunk driver road blocks!

            2. MCM, the only “class” of people the AZ law goes against is those who do not follow the law by coming here legally. I don’t necessarily defend the law as the best way to deal with the problem, but I resent that you and other liberals appear to be saying nothing needs to be done. Like I said, I can’t see why liberals defend illegal immigrants and encourage it as if our laws mean nothing. Any attempts by anyone to deal with the issue and you label them racists.

               As I mentioned in a comment above, I am equally apalled at those who would take advantage of a cheap pool of labor they can abuse and have no workplace safety or protections. Surely I would think liberals would be on board with that, since the ones on this board always seem to be boasting about some proud progressive heritage about that sort of thing. Well, time to put your mouth where your history is. But you remove the unscrupulous employers, then you need to remove the illegals, and you liberals want them around as voters, so I see where that’s going.

               And yes, I don’t like to look at people as part of a race or class. Unfortunately liberals are the ones who seem to not focus on equality, but instead special rights for this group or that, and then we will never get beyond our divisions.

               1. I’d love to toss employers who take advantage of illegal immigrants so that they can pay less than the prevailing wage, don’t provide reasonable benefits, don’t provide safe working conditions, and other terms of employment that American workers have a right to. Where should we start? Arizona?

                  1. What do you mean by “toss employers.” I just want them to follow the law, not banned from doing business.

                     The feds can start enforcing more in AZ if you want. If that’s the law, it should be enforced there — and everywhere. But if you start enforcing employers those illegal immigrants aren’t going to be able to find work anywhere. So along with enforcing employers, there better be some enforcement to toss the illegals too. But liberals don’t want to do that do they. I wonder why not.

                     1. Toss ’em in jail. You aren’t going soft on me now are you? I thought we wanted to enforce the law and deny illegal immigrants opportunities to work. Then they have no reason to be here, right? And not only are these employers stealing jobs from Americans, but they are underpaying and mistreating the illegal immigrants as well. UnAmerican and inhumane all at the same time.

                        So fine ’em and use the proceeds to incarcerate ’em.

                        1. I agree with you Ed! Companies who do not legally report workers should face heafty fines. Not sure how you would incarcerate a corporation, but I know liberals have been trying to figure out how to do it for years!

                           1. Well you jail the managers and execs…illegals don’t get hired by accident. otoh, I bet over 50% of the illegals are working for individuals or small firms.

         2. So you checked the ‘individual’ box on your census form instead of…?

            1. 🙂

            2. Ed, I do not think the census or any other government function should require us to submit that information. It’s insulting and unnecessary and useless. People who have more than one ethnic background get to decide which box they want to check — what purpose does that serve?!

               1. Since the census is Constitutionally required, what information wouldn’t be insulting to require?

                  Age? I am a little sensitive about that as I get older so maybe Ill skip that one B? Although it might be helpful for educators to know how many adults vs youth, but what the heck. But no education would leave out the issues with the next question. Sex? Well modern science has proven that isn’t a black and white dichotomy anymore either (damn that DNA research), so we leave that out. Or maybe we ask Gender? But how many options do we have for that…and what if someone is gender confused? How do we provide for that? Race? I prefer Formula One, but I bet you are a NASCAR kinda guy/gal. Household income? How the heck can we ‘redistribute the wealth’ effectively if we don’t know who’s wealthy. Or who ‘needs’ it besides Wall Street (but nobody actually lives on Wall Street, they are all on 57th or 5th Avenue I bet).

                  So can we just safely ask…well, youse guys at 123 E Elm, how many people live here? and be done with it?

                  1. Yes Ed all that is constitutionally required is the number of people. By the way I don’t think the census asks about household income. But I guess if they are asking additional questions, they should have a reason for it. Asking age might determine whether an area needs more nursing homes or schools. But what different services are they going to ask whether someone is white or black?

                     1. Actually the race question has been part of the census form since 1790 and is currently used to determine compliance with voting rights and civil rights legislation. It is also used to track social and economic trends.

                        And of course the state legislatures love it so they can gerrymander the Congressional districts more effectively! LOL!

               2. btw: what should we do with special interest groups who send out literature marked CENSUS when it is actually something else?

                  1. It’s not my problem if you’re not smart enough to read the whole document that says “Republican Party” on it. But I think we’ve been over that.

                     And thanks for ignoring my point but bringing up something completely irrelevant.

                     1. deception as nothing to do with smarts…it was intentional and mean spirited…fraud might be too strong a word but…

3. Personally I think Arizona’s new law is a great law. We all recognize that we need to allow a better path to citizenship, but since the state can’t grant the citizenship the only way we can protect ourselves is to enforce harsher penalties against all illegal immigrants. We can’t sort the good and the bad until the Federal government acts. Instead of protesting our actions people should be petitioning their congressmen to reform immigration laws. We just want to keep the criminals and drug dealers out of our state.

   1. Well they can kiss their latin american tourism dollars good bye!

      1. What tourism dollars? 1. How many Latin American tourists are there? 2. And how many of them would be going to AZ in the first place?

         And since SF seems to have such a problem with the AZ law by initiating a boycott, maybe AZ should offer to send its illegals directly to SF to partake in all of that city’s benefits and services. I wonder how that would fly? You can be as touchy feely liberal as you want, until your taxes double and you can’t afford to pay for people who shouldn’t even be here.

         1. I can’t believe that you are so provincial as to think their isn’t any money in Latin America and that they wouldn’t want to come to the states on occasion. I would imagine some of them are just as interested in the Grand Canyon for instance as many of us. Or spring training baseball…after all just a few of our baseball stars are hispanic. And I imagine there are a fair amount of day trips across our shared border. I don’t think the traffic is all FROM Arizona to Mexico.

            And don’t think we aren’t already paying for people who shouldn’t be here…it’s hidden but it’s already built into a lot of fees we pay for public infrastructure or insurance. And I would think we underpay for a lot of foodstuffs and other goods and services that rely on taking advantage of the illegal status of their ’employees’.

            And how long do you think you can p*ss off citizens of hispanic backgrounds by frequently asking them for their papers? How often would you go somewhere you have a perfect right to visit if you were harassed about your right to be here/there?

            This might energize part of the Republican parties core constituency but I bet it really engages our Hispanic community and the Repubs may lose their votes for generations.

            1. It doesn’t look much better from the Democrat’s proposal as they are proposing national ID cards. Will there really be a difference?

               http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20100430/cm_huffpost/557721

   2. http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20100430/cm_huffpost/557721

      Who’s calling for papers now!

4. When Shakira stated “that I am pretty much undocumented” is absolutely ridiculous. She came to our country with documents. When entering into the United States legitimately you must show your passport, which Shakira certainly did. By challenging Arpaio to come and get her because she left her passport at her 5 star hotel clearly indicates Shakira does not understand the Arizona Senate Bill 1070. By Shakria not carrying her passport or identification does not mean she will be arrested. One must engage in illegal activity to be arrested and asked for identification, which most likely Shakira will not be engaging in illegal activity. For someone to rally other individuals without fully understanding the SB 1070 is irresponsible. People (including Shakira) need to take the time to fully understand the law before grand standing to an audience who expects her to be informed. Shakira should respect the United State’s freedom of speech and should be fully educated on the law before leading an emotional charged crowd. This law is not new, it is enforcing what is already in place by the Federal Government. It is a Federal crime to be an illegal alien thus the term “illegal alien.” Crime has become an increasing problem in Arizona. The law is designed to punish criminals for being criminals not for being illegal immigrants. Which all members of our community should embrace. If the Federal Government would take illegal immigration seriously there could be alternatives for this law. But the Federal Government ignored Arizona’s immigration problem and decided they could not rely on the Federal Government for help. Arizona’s actions are directed against the members of the immigrant community that are criminals. Anyone, citizen or non-citizen, should agree that the increased violence around our boarders needs to be addressed. Immigrants and citizens need to work together to reduce crime. Shame on you Shakria for further inflaming a passionate subject that should be addressed rationally. Shame on you everyone else for not educating yourself on the SB 1070. For those of you that want to be educated you can read the full law here

   1. Major League Baseball doesn’t see it as quite as benign as you are making it out to be.

      http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-arizonaimmigration042910

      1. They’re just afraid their drug supply will dry up. 🙂

   2. Arizona Citizen – thanks for that link. While it’s was still a blog & I’ve been hoping for a more authoritative source, it passed through bias filters. I found it to be the most informative I’ve read.

      In particular, it addressed one specific issue which I wanted to know – one that has had a tremendous amount of disinformation surrounding it:

      Arizona doesn’t clearly define a Lawful Contact but the revised version of SB 1070 has removed this wording.

      The original law stated police can conduct an immigration status check during any quote “lawful contact,” if they have reasonable suspicion a person is an illegal immigrant.
      It replaces “lawful contact” with “lawful stop, detention or arrest,” clarifying police may not stop people without cause.

      The revised law also removes the word “solely” from the phrase “The attorney general or county attorney shall not investigate complaints that are based solely on race, color or national origin.”

      That’s intended to remove fears about racial profiling.

      Source

      That is not to say I’m 100% sold on what they’re trying to do or how they’re trying to do it, (I appreciate that it’s a tough problem Arizona faces and they’re not getting any federal help with it so I’m inclined to cut them a fair amount of slack), the claims of “pulling over everyone with brown skin for no reason” certainly seem to be patently false.

5. I just read the best reaction to the immigration law ever on CNN. Awesome! “OK… so a cop’s title is “Law Enforcement Officer”… in order to be an “Illegal Immigrant” you have to be breaking the law of the United States of America… why would we not expect our “Law Enforcement Officers” to enforce the law of the United States of America? This is not a racist statement, this is not an anti-immigrant statement, I’m not a tea-partier, Im a slightly left of center gay American whose partner of 8 years is a Canadian. My partner goes through a massive ordeal in order to stay in this country legally, which he does… Im not able to sponsor him for permanent residence, and there is no legal pathway for him to gain permanent residence… so for now we live with renewing his temporary status based on his job and NAFTA, hoping for either an employer willing to sponsor him for permanent residence (a 5 year long, very expensive process) or the repeal/invalidation of DOMA, or the passage of the UAFA bill. He has to prove his legality in this country quite often, and is required to have his passport with proof of his legality on him at all times… I am more a victim of discrimination, as a US Citizen who cannot sponsor my permanent partner for US residence, than these illegal aliens who are breaking the law of the united states”

   1. Good luck to you on both fronts. This certainly illustrates one of the biggest difficulties about the issue. That unlike most other issues (including and most especially health care reform) this one really does need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner. We really need to deal with it on all three points – border control & security, what to do with those already here illegal, and those who wish to come here. Whether we give total amnesty or immediate deportation to illegals, if we do nothing more to prevent illegal immigration to continue on a large scale we’re being foolish. And if we fail to understand and address the fact that making it incredibly difficult for good people to come here legally contributes to the people taking the illegal route.

      My solution is to hire a ton of INS agents who can do due diligence & thorough background checks, and we increase our legal immigration by double or triple current numbers. Here’s the part you many not like – hiring those people & doing the investigative work necessary for security isn’t going to be cheap. And the price should be born not by current citizen/taxpayers but by those wanting to come in. I don’t know how the numbers would work out – maybe it costs $10,000 per person. You could choose to have your waged garnished to pay. My guess is many/most would choose to do this & be legal citizens, especially those on work visas who are already employed. Those who don’t you can play hardball with in good conscience.

6. “WELL YA’LL KNOW WHAT FORGET ALL OF YOU HATEZ YOU PEOPLE JUST DONT KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO BE IN DIZ SITUATION AND TO BE HATED”!!!!!!!!!

7. Arizona anti-ILLEGAL immigration law.

   Well, having read all of the comments so far, and watched the ludicrous statements coming out of the ‘pundits’ in the media, ranging from the ultra weird Glen Beck to comics like John Stewart, all I can say is that someone needs to actually READ the LAW then compare it to the federal statutes that have NOT been enforced because of reductions in man-power to Border Patrol, ICE, and federal officers charged with investigating businesses that are employing ILLEGAL immigrants in order to avoid paying payroll taxes, health benefits, social security, etc. (they still pull those taxes from the illegals who have nothing to say about it unless they want to risk losing their job however menial it may be) and of course paying these SLAVE LABORERS below market wages to provide managers with bonuses for cost-cutting.
   We NEED the people of all states to have the ability to enforce the laws that the federal government refuses to enforce, especially against the employers including Senators and Representatives who hire undocumented workers to clean their houses and maintain their yards.
   An official charged with upholding the Constitution and all laws generated under the auspices of the Constitution should be held to a much higher standard because they DO know better yet enslave these people without thought. H1B visas are another area where people are enslaved by a corporation and usually paid about 50% of market driven wages and salaries. If an H1B visa worker objects to excessive overtime hours (without being paid overtime in most cases), or the inability to participate in health benefits etc. that foreign worker can LOSE their visa and be forced to return to their home country without any compensation from the corporation to cover those moving back where they came from costs.
   The lack of enforcement against individuals and corporations has permitted a new form of indentured servitude, which we outlawed even before we finally outlawed slavery.
   Boycott Arizona and you Boycott the first state to call for an end to the 21st century version of slavery. Arizona law doesn’t go far enough, but hopefully we will survive the loss of tourism (what a shame if I never had to drive behind some moron from Minnesota who insists on driving a Winnebego during rush hour to go shopping at the mall) and be able to hold our heads high telling the nation we were first to say what needed to be said when the people we elect to the U.S. Senate and House don’t seem to possess the political will to do their jobs.
   Robert Scott

   1. I have read the amended legislation and Arizona has attempted to tone it down a bit. The final proof will be in the implementation and we will have to see what happens.

      I think you are wrong on one major point. I believe that the federal government has increased the number of officers assigned to patrolling our border with Mexico. They apparently still don’t have enough people in place but I don’t believe they have reduced manpower.

      I also think you are wrong about H1B visas. These are usually secured for high tech workers by companies like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and others. Although they often aren’t paid 100% the prevailing wage they often are paid close to it with benefits because of their expertise. They also tend to be contract salaried employees rather than hourly workers so getting paid for overtime isn’t an issue. They are treated the same as exempt US employees in that regard.

   2. Wikipedia says that the Bush Administration doubled the number of agents in the Border patrol to around 20,000. A recent news article in the Arizona Republic states that there are about 16,000 border patrol agents in the Southwest and that Congress has authorized hiring another 2,000 in 2010 and 1,500 for 2011.

8. I love this Arizona law, I think the entire country should follow suit. The illegal immigration in this country is out of control. Supposedly there are only about 20 million illegals in the USA and they are draining our resources at an incredible speed, imagine if they keep coming and we don’t stop them? We will be no better off than mexico. This is not an “anti-immigrant law” people, so STOP calling it that, it’s an “anti-illegal immigrant law”. Crossing our borders is illegal and it’s a crime. Mexico has no mercy on their illegal immigrants and provide them with no rights but they want us to provide their mexican nationals with rights and benefits? Do as I say not as I do? Get a grip mejico MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS and let our government run our country the way they want to and the way the American citizens want them to. GET OUT ILLEGALS!

   1. Statistically, only 60% of the illegal immigrants in Arizona are from Mexico.

9. I’m glad that my post has generated such “thoughtful” comments and brought out all points of view. It looks like there is a huge cadre of anti-immigrant folks trying to deluge the idea marketplace with their views. I for one am not convinced that the AZ “papers please” law is anything but discriminatory and will be found to be unconstitutional. It is quite similar to the laws of South Africa during apartheid when if you were black, you had to be able to always show your papers. Substitute Hispanic or Brown for black in the above statement and you see the implications of this law. Substitute white and you’ll see the consequences for many of those posting here.

   1. Isn’t open immigration a free market philosophy?

   2. Please call it what it is. It’s not “anti immigration folks,” it’s ILLEGAL immigration that I and others have a problem with. Somehow the other side conveniently leaves that word out. Let’s reform the system so we have something workable, controlled, and have people doing it the right and legal way.

   3. Apartheid? A bit of a stretch even for you.

      If AZ law is found unconstitutional as you believe it will be, does BHO actually have a better plan to fix the problem? I mean one other than amnesty so they can all vote for him in ’12. I wish he would get as angry about this issue as he is all of a sudden abou the oil spill.

10. This website is a great example of ignorance in this country. Before passing judgement, just do your homework. The Arizona law is an enforcement law that is less restrictive than the federal law that it references. If you disagree with the Arizona law, take a look at the federal law. Also, please do your research and question the misrepresentations after you actually do your homework. Take a look at the Mexican policies toward ILLEGAL immigration, do you understand yet? And finally, the “show me your papers” reference and comparison to Nazi Germany… First, is Arizona gasing millions of innocent people? Second, the inference is that this Nazism is somehow a conservative/Republican movement… Please remember that the Nazis were the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. With this said, please be honest and consider what party or more specifically, what segment of a party are socialists or facists? Healthcare, Manufacturing(automotive), and Financial takeovers along with Cap and Trade, etc… Wake up! We should follow our laws and start depending on ourselves for our own well being.

    1. Two things:

       The Arizona law allows citizens to sue the police depts if they feel they aren’t enforcing the laws. This isn’t part of the federal legislation and may cause local law enforcement keep looking over their shoulder…

       If you are going to remind us to do our homework, do a bit yourself, and don’t judge a book by its cover. Just because they included the term socialist in their party name, they were anything but. The weren’t a workers party either. It’s not much different than saying the People’s Republic of China is a republic and a peoples haven…not!

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