{"id":11614,"date":"2010-05-11T20:03:18","date_gmt":"2010-05-11T20:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2010\/05\/11\/michael-scarpalanda-on-arizona-senate-bill-1070\/"},"modified":"2010-05-11T20:03:18","modified_gmt":"2010-05-11T20:03:18","slug":"michael-scarpalanda-on-arizona-senate-bill-1070","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2010\/05\/11\/michael-scarpalanda-on-arizona-senate-bill-1070\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Scarpalanda on Arizona Senate Bill 1070"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craig M. Thompson writes:<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

I have enjoyed your commentary on the current situation in Arizona.  I ran across an interesting article at The Witherspoon Institute on illegal immigration called <\/font>Arizona, Congress, and the Immigration Mess<\/font><\/a>.   And I was hoping that you might comment on some of the points that he makes against SB 1070.  Thanks for the consideration!<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And thank your for alerting me to this article by Michael Scarpalanda, who holds the Gene and Elaine Edwards Family Chair in Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.  Here are some comments.<\/font><\/p>\n

The article begins unpromisingly by referring to "Arizona's draconian response" to the problem of illegal immigration.  I must immediately protest.  To refer to <\/font>SB 1070<\/font><\/a> as "draconian" is an egregious misuse of language.  One should not toss this word around without knowing what it means.  It derives from the name of the first legislator of written laws of Athens, Greece.  The harshness of Draco's code gave rise to the adjective 'draconian' which is properly applied only to laws and sanctions that are harsh, cruel, and unreasonable.  Now there is nothing draconian about <\/font>SB 1070<\/font><\/a> as you may verify for yourself by simply reading it.  See also the <\/font>fact sheet<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

Turning now to the article, we read:<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

On April 30, 2010, Arizona\u2019s governor signed SB 1070 into law, setting off waves of hyperbolic reactions and counter-reactions. Among other things, the law states that \u201cfor any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or agency . . . where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made . . . to determine the immigration status of the person.\u201d An alien unlawfully present can be taken into custody, charged with a state crime, and transferred to federal custody.<\/font><\/p>\n

Several questions immediately arise. What is \u201clawful contact\u201d? What constitutes \u201creasonable suspicion\u201d? How will immigration status be determined?<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Scarpalanda fails to mention that a week after Governor Brewer signed into law SB 1070, she signed into law <\/font>House Bill 2162<\/font><\/a> which modifies and clarifies the language of 1070, in particular, the phrase "lawful contact."  For more on this, together with quotations from 2162, see <\/font>this post of mine.<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

When cavils like those that Scarpalanda raises are made it is pretty good evidence that one is dealing with a liberal who simply does not want immigration laws enforced.  Not knowing anything about Scarpalanda, I cannot know whether this is true in his case.  But in the vast majority of cases of liberal-leftist hyperventilation over 1070 it is spectacularly clear that one is dealing with open borders types who do not respect the rule of law except when it can be invoked to further the leftist agenda.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Although the law forbids using race as the sole determining factor in forming \u201creasonable suspicion,\u201d the law will undoubtedly have a disproportionate impact on Arizona\u2019s Hispanic population, including those who are United States citizens or lawful permanent residents. How could it not? Race, ethnicity, and accent will almost surely be factors in deciding whether to verify a person\u2019s immigration or citizenship status.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Again, Scarpalanda ignores the 2162 modifications of 1070, in particular, this one: "A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not solely<\/span><\/span><\/span> consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution."<\/font><\/p>\n

Scarpalanda is worried that the new law will have a "disproportionate impact on Arizona's Hispanic population."  But how could it fail to?  The majority of illegal aliens are Hispanic!  Here we note the twisted logic of the Politically Correct.  These people display an unthinking quota mentality: they think there is something unfair about a law if , when it is enforced, it affects more members of one  group than another, or affects a group 'disproportionately.'  But to think in this way is to show that one is morally obtuse.  Vastly more men than women abuse their spouses.  But it is surely no valid argument against laws prohibiting spousal abuse that they disproportionately 'target' men.  Because more men commit this crime than women, it is to be expected that more men will be 'targeted.'  Similarly, because more Hispanics than Asians or Blacks or Caucasians violate immigration laws in such southern border states as Arizona, it is to be expected that Hispanics will be disproportionately affected by the enforcement of immigration laws.  It is only to be expected, and there is nothing unjust about it.<\/font><\/p>\n

Despite  the shoddiness of most of Scarpalanda's article (failure to link to the relevant documents, failure to take into consideration the House bill's modification of the Senate bill, use of the bad argument just exposed), his positive proposals near the end are actually quite reasonable: secure the borders to stem the tide of future illegals; provide for the legalization of the the large numbers of productive, non-criminal illegals already here; adopt a temporary worker program.<\/font><\/p>\n

But Job One is to secure the border by building and maintaining a physical barrier that stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.  All the better heads agree on this.  <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craig M. Thompson writes: I have enjoyed your commentary on the current situation in Arizona.  I ran across an interesting article at The Witherspoon Institute on illegal immigration called Arizona, Congress, and the Immigration Mess.   And I was hoping that you might comment on some of the points that he makes against SB 1070.  Thanks for … Continue reading “Michael Scarpalanda on Arizona Senate Bill 1070”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,56,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-politics","category-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}