I took a little bit of hit yesterday on Facebook due to my expressed opposition to Arizona's new law aimed at illegal immigrants but not aimed very well as it allows ample room for the harassment and curtailed liberties of legal US citizens. This law is also redundant, it is already illegal to be an illegal immigrant or illegal alien (quite possibly why we include the word illegal in any discourse we have on illegal immigration). Should we be wasting time and money legislating things that are already legislated? Then there is the nit-pickery, is a state able to legislate on such a matter at all? Most importantly, this law is merely a misguided reaction to a tragic crime. The proponents of this law want us to believe that illegal immigrants are the perpetrators of rampant violent crime.
Some people even tout official sounding though apparently bogus statistics to back up their claims and further instill fear into the public. Historically, Americans have lived in fear of nasty immigrant crime yet, also historically, immigrant crime rates have not exceeded those of native born citizens. It is important to note here that past studies have focused on non-native immigrants vs native born persons, rather than persons here illegally vs those in the US legally (kinda makes you wonder where some numbers come from). However, taking that into account you will come up with the same prevailing conclusion among learned and studied persons, that illegal immigrants actually are incarcerated at a lower rate than native born citizens. Which means what? Well, it could mean that those scary Mexicans that moved in down the street aren't nearly as scary as that 19-year-old white kid living next door to you, even if you have known his parents for five years and they are great Christian Tea Party attendees and all that jazz.
Aliens were less likely to be prosecuted for violent federal
offenses (murder, rape, robbery and assault) than were citizens--
1.4 percent versus 8.5 percent during 1994.
-BJS Press Release: SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 1994
Sure, most relevant data is aged and difficult to dig through and decipher but there is certainly enough to form an opinion. My opinion is that this law is some more of the crazy bat antics of those hysterical ultra conservatives who won't be happy until the United States is a country of homogenized white Christians. More specifically, as brought to my attention at Its my Right to be Left of the Center today, white nationalist (or white separatist, if you prefer) groups such as FAIR, the Council of Conservative Citizens, and the AIC Foundation. These are people who play with things like eugenics. Remember that old concept that gave birth to such un-savories as involuntary sterilization?
Nice.
More reading:
The American Prospect
Americas Program
Center for Immigration Studies
Crime, Corrections and California
Its my Right to be Left of the Center
Noncitizens in the Federal Criminal Justice System, 1984-94
3 comments:
It's nuts. Not only will violent crime increase because this bill will misdirect law enforcement efforts, it could conceivably bankrupt the state. It has this lovely little provision that says a citizen can sue if they feel local law enforcement ISN'T doing all they can to enforce the law.
They've already had instances of American citizens of Hispanic descent being handcuffed and forced to show his birth certificate. Driver's license and Social was apparently not enough.
I think the law is an excuse for racism. Seriously, you're right, the law already makes all of that illegal - this just makes it legal to harass anyone they "suspect" of being here illegally. Nice.
Keep in mind that the anti-immigrant movement is made up of people who thing that illegal immigrants are a) lazy and just want handouts, and b) are taking our jobs...without seeing any conflict between those two beliefs. That, along with all the garbage about Obama's birth certificate etc. really kinda makes me long for the days when racists didn't pretend not to be racists...
Post a Comment