Arizona style immigration law coming to Virginia?

[Anonymous]

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/Pol-Wants-Arizona-Illegal-Immigration-Law-for-Virginia-96596719.html

I would support this. Va has been overrun with illegal immigrants.

[Anonymous]

Hope so! Especially since it just replicates Federal law. Not sure what the scandal is (except that the Feds won't actually fulfill their obligations).

[Anonymous]

Let's hope none of the international businessmen who work in the area go for a jog without their wallet... they could get deported!

Oh, wait, this law is only going to be enforced on poor brown folks. Nevermind!

[Anonymous]

Great. It's going to really hurt recruiting in the tech community. It would be easier to move offices to MD rather than have to discuss this with every minority candidate. Which of these is going to allow me to convince somebody to move from Silicon Valley to here:

1. You're fine but just don't go anywhere without your US passport (even though you are American?)

2. Don't worry, they only "really" go after Latinos?

3. No one will bother you unless you were doing something wrong to begin with?


VA's loss is MD's gain.

[Anonymous]

Whatever. It's not that deep. It's federal law. Protest that much lately?

[Anonymous]

This is not federal law. You are conflating ideology with methodology. The federal government doesn't have the right to demand immigration/citizenship documentation on demand without cause. This recent round of legislation authorizes just that.

Saying this is just reiterating federal law would be like saying a law allowing cops to shoot murder suspects on the spot is the same as federal law. Hey, murder is already illegal, right? We're just enforcing the law that's already on the book!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. It's not that deep. It's federal law. Protest that much lately?

You really are a fucktard, aren't you? Do you realize that many of the embassies here have already advised their (legal) employees not to go to Arizona on vacation unless they have their passports on them at all times?

It is one thing to enforce federal law - I have absolutely no problem with that. But the Arizona law says that you have to have your passport, I-95 etc on you at all times - in the swimming pool, going for a run, going out for a drink in a bar - because if you don't, the cops can randomly ask you for your ID and put you in jail until you can produce your papers. That is a level of fascism that is incompatible with a free country.

Shame on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You really are a fucktard, aren't you? ...

I'm not the poster you were responding to, and in fact I agree with you about the AZ law. But what is the point of the name-calling? It detracts from the substance of your post, embarrasses many of us who agree with you, and provides those who don't with evidence that we liberals are intolerant of other views.

[Anonymous]

Wow. True colors are always illuminating. Good to see the quality of person I'm debating with ( will not assume that applies to all opposed to the law tho...). Btw - the law says with cause. Are you from the school of Eric holder and haven't read it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. True colors are always illuminating. Good to see the quality of person I'm debating with ( will not assume that applies to all opposed to the law tho...). Btw - the law says with cause. Are you from the school of Eric holder and haven't read it?

How does it define "cause"? What gives you cause to think someone might be here illegally? Speaking with an accent? Brown skin? Flying a flag of another nation? Saying bad things about America? Watching the World Cup??? Because all of those, and others, have been used to criticize people's "American-ness". If we codify this into law, instead of dismissing it as the racist, xenophobic, jingoism it is, we might as we deport the Constitution as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. True colors are always illuminating. Good to see the quality of person I'm debating with ( will not assume that applies to all opposed to the law tho...). Btw - the law says with cause. Are you from the school of Eric holder and haven't read it?

(Not the person who called you fucktard.)

Do you remember what happened with the drug forfeiture laws? The cops took a law meant to seize assets used in drug deals, based on "probable cause", and turned it into their own little profit center. This is what Henry Hyde, hardly a liberal, had to say about drug forfeiture abuses (source = Frontline):

Henry Hyde has called stories like these "Kafkaesque," and recalls that when he first learned of the nation's civil forfeiture practices, he considered them "more appropriate for the Soviet Union than the United States." What's more, he's said, "People take their due process rights for granted...they have no idea that these laws exist."

Critics agree that the main problem with the civil asset forfeiture laws, before the recent reforms, was the low burden of proof required to seize property. A seizure could be made on the basis of mere suspicion, known as "probable cause", that the property was involved in a crime....

Clearly the police can easily turn a law like this into a way to harass people they don't like. If you are a foreign-looking citizen of the United States and you don't have proof of citizenship on you, they can run you in at any time if they don't like you. How many kids do you know carry proof of citizenship with them? How many adults? I personally carry my passport only when I have to. Most people don't even have one. And a DL does not count. Are you going to carry your passport around every day? Will a photocopy of your birth certificate work? Probably not, they are too easy to fake.

The only way I would accept this law is if they made it the law for everyone to carry a government-issued ID card with proof of citizenship. But guess what? The states won't pay for one. And they certainly don't want to face the "American-looking" voters and tell them they have to carry papers.

[Anonymous]

"cause" -- if you've broken another law, the police can ask for your id. Wow. How unheard of. I'd be happy to carry ID. I had to when I lived in other 'enlightened' first world nations --Italy comes to mind.
As for your paranoia about the police - do you share all these views with them when you call them over a break-in or when they were searching the rubble on 9/11? Caution is called for, and that's why we have watch-dogs of any group in power, but to not hand a group of people responsibility because your starting assumption is they-as a group- will abuse it reflects on you - not them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. It's not that deep. It's federal law. Protest that much lately?

You really are a fucktard, aren't you? Do you realize that many of the embassies here have already advised their (legal) employees not to go to Arizona on vacation unless they have their passports on them at all times?

It is one thing to enforce federal law - I have absolutely no problem with that. But the Arizona law says that you have to have your passport, I-95 etc on you at all times - in the swimming pool, going for a run, going out for a drink in a bar - because if you don't, the [b]cops can randomly ask you for your ID and put you in jail until you can produce your papers. That is a level of fascism that is incompatible with a free country.

Shame on you.

Man, this sounds so communist. I briefly lived in the Former Soviet Union and the undereducated, underqualified police can ask you for your documents when they see fit.

[Anonymous]

One of the powerful tools that VA has that AZ doesn't is the demographics; there is a better educated/traveled lot here than in white trash AZ. Let me put it this way. Even the erudite class you would call doctors, are fucktards in AZ.

BTW, OP, how do you know the DC metro area is overrun by illegals? How do you know their status? By the tint of their skin? Type of job they do?

[Anonymous]

Your language is truly offensive. Asking for papers is not fascist. Is Italy fascist? Every other country where I've been asked for papers (basically everywhere except US)? Personally, I'd prefer not to carry papers/national ID. Even so, I'm willing to do it if the Federal Government continues to maintain open borders. With open borders, we need internal border controls. Especially when it comes to people already pulled over for traffic violation etc. Why process them as citizens if they're not?