Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
A federal judge handed a victory to supporters of illegal immigration yesterday by blocking a tough new law in Arizona that would have required police officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton also provided cover for federal lawmakers who have ducked and dodged the complex issue of how to curb illegal immigration and have forced states that border Mexico like Arizona to pass their own laws to deal with the issue.
Arizona leaders will likely appeal the ruling to overturn Bolton's order which takes effect just a day before the Arizona law was supposed to take effect.
Bolton's order stopped parts of the Arizona law that would have required immigrants to carry their papers at all times and that would have made it illegal for illegal aliens to solicit work in public places as day laborers commonly do.
Bolton reasoned that checking immigration status "burdens lawfully present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked."
I think Bolton's reasoning is flawed because we all, at some time or another, have our liberty restricted in the search for illegal activity.
How you ever driven through a drunk driving check point?
If so, your liberties were restricted when the officer checked whether you had been drinking. Assuming you hadn't, the officer sent you on your way. I'm not sure how many sober people are inconvenienced in this search for drunk drivers but society has determined that the brief "restriction" on our liberties is worth it.
In the same way, a brief inconvenience of legal U.S. residents in the search for illegal residents should be tolerated.
I'm no lawyer but if the biggest legal hurdle to the implementation of the Arizona law is that it inconveniences people in the search for criminals, Bolton's ruling will likely be overturned down the road.