Bordering On Chaos

While anti-immigration wingnut Michelle Malkin was probably gleefully bouncing up in down in her computer chair while typing out her piece on Arizona's preposterous, and likely unconstitutional, immigration law, there's still some unease amongst some of her fellow conservatives.

Here's a portion of Malkin's screed:

It’s official: GOP Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed the nation’s toughest immigration enforcement bill. They’re doing the job the feds won’t do — taking the law and our borders seriously to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our citizens first.

Cue the ACLU lawyers, the open-borders lobby, and the race-card players. And watch the Left show you what intolerance is really all about.

You ever notice that the ACLU is always the first to get slammed when something like this happens? I mean, I can at least see how conservatives are want to allow people's civil liberties to be trampled on, but one has to wonder how a woman of Philippine/Cuban decent is so eager to shill for this law. After all, if she ever visits Arizona, she's just as likely to be stopped for "driving while not white" as anybody. I'm sure that's at least in the back of her mind, but don't expect her to admit it.

Here's Allahpundits take on the new law in which he addresses the fact that there's still a lot of gray area in it that doesn't give law enforcement a very clear picture of what is and what isn't "reasonable suspicion".

The “reasonable suspicion” requirement is still there (see yesterday’s post for more on that) but this version specifies that there have to be independent grounds for suspicion beyond race. Also new is the list of documents that someone can present to create a presumption that they’re here legally, although it’s unclear to me how that’ll work in practice. If you’re pulled over on suspicion of being illegal for whatever reason and you produce an Arizona driver’s license, does the cop then let you go (probably, in most cases) or does he get to hold you while he tries to come up with further evidence to overcome the presumption? Another open question — and this is the key for civil libertarians — is whether “reasonable suspicion” can be formed simply by virtue of the fact that the suspect isn’t carrying one of the ID types listed. If so, then cops could theoretically start pulling people aside on the sidewalk and hauling them in if they don’t produce their “papers.” I don’t read this section that way; it sounds like “reasonable suspicion” must exist before any “reasonable attempt” to verify the suspect’s immigration status is made. But if I’m misreading it and “reasonable suspicion” is satisfied if the suspect is guilty of nothing more than being Latino and forgetting his driver’s license at home, then they’re going to have a Category Five legal and political clusterfark on their hands when the first American citizens of Hispanic descent are mistakenly arrested.

You'll notice that I quote Allah on her fairly regularly. This isn't because I accept his point of view on all things, but because he treads that fine line between "against everything Obama does" and "for everything that conservatives do". That being said, I don't think it makes him a particularly honest blogger either, as this too often comes off as pre-damage control just in case the need arises.

To the point though that law enforcement officials have to now police race ( and that's what's happening people ) as well as protect that citizenry that is here legally, this is likely to be a resource-drainer in many instances.

And even though the "birth certificate" claim is being walked back by conservatives now, there has already been an instance of this happening even before legislation was signed by the governor of Arizona. So who's to say that this isn't going to happen again?

By and large, this new law does not make Arizona look good. Well, to hardline right-wingers it does, but the socio-political and economic ramifications that this poses are far more reaching that most people are going to realize. Certainly, immigration reform is needed, and this most certainly is not the way to approach it. From my perspective, this not only will make life more difficult for legal immigrants, but for natural-born citizens of not only Hispanic heritage, but anyone that isn't white.

This is not going to play out well, especially for conservatives.