Posted on 05/11/2010 7:57:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I am State Senator Russell Pearce, the author of SB 1070, signed by Governor Jan Brewer. Maybe liberals ought to read the Constitution, case law, or even just the bill itself before citing incorrect information. Fear mongering and misinformation are opponents’ only tool against this common sense legislation.
Illegal is not a race, it is a crime. SB 1070 simply codifies federal law into state law, removes excuses and concerns about states’ inherent authority to enforce these laws and removes all illegal “sanctuary” policies.
When do we stand up for Americans and the rule of law? If not now, when? We are a nation of laws, a Constitutional republic.
Arizona did not make illegal, illegal. Illegal was already illegal. It is a crime to enter or remain in the U.S. in violation of federal law. States have had inherent authority to enforce immigration laws and have failed or refused to do so. Sanctuary policies are illegal under federal law (8 USC 1644 & 1373), yet we have them all over the United States.
Paul Kantner of the 1960s rock band Jefferson Airplane once remarked, “San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.” When I first heard that San Francisco was planning to boycott Arizona over the SB 1070 legislation that I introduced, this description seemed fitting.
However, when neighboring Oakland’s city council voted 7-0 to boycott Arizona last Tuesday, and President Pro Tem of the California State Senate Derrell Steinberg announced a campaign in the Legislature to boycott us, it became clear that San Francisco is merely ahead of the California crazy curve.
Why did I propose SB 1070? I saw the enormous fiscal and social costs that illegal immigration was imposing on my state. I saw Americans out of work, hospitals and schools overflowing, and budgets strained. Most disturbingly, I saw my fellow citizens victimized by illegal alien criminals. The murder of Robert Krentz — whose family had been ranching in Arizona since 1907 — by illegal alien drug dealers was the final straw for many Arizonans. There are dozens and dozens of other citizens of our state who have been murdered by illegal aliens. Currently, 95 illegal aliens are in Maricopa County jail for murder.
Most of the hysterical critics of the bill do not even know what is in it. All SB 1070 does is allow Arizona law enforcement officials to detain illegal aliens under state law. The law does not allow police to stop suspected illegal aliens unless they have already come across them through normal “lawful conduct” such as a traffic stop, and explicitly prohibits racial profiling.
Aside from the unfounded accusation of racial profiling, the chief complaint about the bill is that it infringes on federal jurisdiction by enforcing laws. However, there is a long legal precedent going back to 1976 that allows states to pass legislation to discourage illegal immigration so long as it does not conflict with federal law. SB 1070 was specifically designed to mirror federal immigration law to avoid such a conflict.
For all their newfound respect for the authority of federal immigration law, the open borders advocates who oppose SB 1070 have no problems with “sanctuary cities” such as San Francisco that explicitly obstruct federal immigration authorities to protect illegal aliens. In 2008, San Francisco began a campaign to encourage illegal aliens to take advantage of the city’s public services.
Mayor Gavin Newsom stated, “We have worked with the Board of Supervisors, Department of Public Health, labor and immigrant rights groups to create a city government-wide public awareness campaign so that immigrants know the city won’t target them for using city services.”
The results were tragic. A few months after the campaign, Edwin Ramos, an illegal alien and member of the MS 13 gang, murdered San Francisco resident Tony Bologna and his two sons who he mistook for rival gang members. Ramos had a lengthy criminal record including a felony assault on a pregnant woman. He was arrested on gang and weapons charges and promptly released just three months before the murder. Not once did San Francisco report him to immigration authorities.
One month after the murder of Bologna, illegal alien Alexander Izaguirre stole Amanda Keifer’s purse and then intentionally ran her over with an SUV, laughing as she hit the pavement and fractured her skull. Four months earlier, Alexander Izaguirre had been arrested for felony dealing of crack cocaine. Not only did San Francisco refuse to turn him over to immigration authorities, city officials expunged his record and helped get him a job, which is criminal in and of itself.
Keifer asked the obvious question, “If they’ve committed crimes and they’re not citizens, then why are they here? Why haven’t they been deported?”
The answer is that politicians like Gavin Newsom put the interests of illegal aliens before the safety of American citizens, not unlike Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and others.
Our law is already working. One can just scan the newspapers and see dozens of headlines like “Illegal Immigrants Leaving Arizona Over New Law: Tough, Controversial New Legislation Scares Many in Underground Workforce Out of State.”
In contrast, American citizens are leaving California. For the last four years, more Americans have left the state than have moved in.
In criticizing the SB 1070, President Barack Obama said, “Our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others.” There is nothing irresponsible about enforcing our law, but President Obama is right in that this is only necessary because the federal government does not do its job.
The solution is not “comprehensive immigration reform,” a euphemism for amnesty. This will only encourage more illegal immigration. Making illegal aliens legal does nothing to change the social and fiscal costs they impose on Arizona or the nation as a whole. In fact, the Heritage Foundation’s research puts the cost of amnesty at over $2.5 trillion.
The federal government simply needs to enforce its immigration laws by cracking down on employers of illegal aliens, securing our borders, and deporting illegal alien criminals. Attrition by enforcement.
If states understand states’ rights and our Constitutional duty and responsibility to our citizens, this legislation in Arizona will be a model for states across the nation and the federal government and it will end illegal immigration to America, but President Obama is looking toward San Francisco instead.
So you call people who have had such experiences liars?
Nice job Vicar.
No you called me an ignorant liar.
Nice talkin’ to ya’
Cut them off from the power produced at Palo Verde nuclear plant.
Ping!
Editorial from the primary author of SB1070.
Sorry, I feel like we must be talking past each other. Lemme try one more time: I said, “to say it’s a common thing to be stopped for no reason, beaten, and thrown into a Mexican prison is ignorant fear-mongering”. That doesn’t mean you’re a liar if it happened to you—it means that to say it’s happening on a “common” basis is ignorant of what’s actually happening in the vast majority of places in Mexico, even the majority of places right on the border.
The mess is that the problems on the border are horrendous, yet pretty tightly focused; what is actually happening in a few hotspots are extrapolated to be happening EVERYWHERE in Mexico. All I am doing is offering my own experience (unless you’re calling ME a liar—should I too be offended?) in which I didn’t get shaken down, arrested, beaten, thrown into Mexican prison, etc. That’s not just once or twice, but a number of times over the past year or so.
Senator Pearce did not have the votes in the state Senate to pass the eligibility bill; so he did not bring it back up for a vote.
Maybe next session...
The big AZ for me.
Thanks. If we get a chance, we'll try it. I used to live in Tucson, so I got a lot of chances to try the good stuff. Albuquerque's got some good food, too. NM food is different, but a good different.
Ok, I’ve been to La mision many times, I’ve surfed at the beach next to La Fonda cantina, heck my friend had a house there for many years we used to stay at. It seems everyone I’ve talked to about the shakedowns have similar stories as mine. That makes me think it is a very common practice. the part about beatings and jail if you don’t pay them are true. I stopped going to Mexico about 6 yrs ago because it got so bad (it wasn’t as bad as it is now back say 20 yrs ago). I’ve been going to surf baja for about 40 yrs up until recently, so I do know what I’m talking about.
That you have never been shaken down is interesting, maybe you’re just lucky or you don’t look like an easy mark like I’ve already stated.
I don’t appreciate being called an ignorant fearmonger when I’m telling you the truth as I know it.
I hope for your sake you never find out first hand what I’m trying to warn you about.
You aren't driving far enough east. Try it in the Los Cruces, NM, El Paso, TX, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua area. Daily the local news in the Albuquerque area has stories about killings (1,400 murders in Juarez alone in 2008, more in 2009, and on track in 2010 to top that), kidnappings, drugs. You name it, it's bad.
That is the best idea I have heard in a while.
They (California) will not build their own power plants in California, they leave it to the “lower class” “desert dwellers” in AZ to fuel their (green) lifestyles.
Hmmmm ! Could you just imagine a “Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station” in San Diego, Monterey, or San Francisco or even the San Joaquin Valley.
I don’t think so !!
I've been saying that here for a long time.
The hypocrisy of the California Hippycrites is unbelievable.
But now they have to swallow their pride and admit...they depend on the Evil Arizonans for all their real necessities.
Just a bunch of shrieking Orcs in L.A.
Swing on down to The OC and pick me up on your way, OK?
In re: your tagline... We do NOT need the entire .gov. We need ONLY version 1.0 (1789) reinstated. If we then ensure that the Thirteenth Amendment is in place, sixteen and seventeen are jammed up Obambi’s butt and the Second taken to mean that, as in Switzerland, automatic weapons are issued to each and every household, then we might just find ourselves on the road to recovery. Throw in a return to gold and silver money, abolishment of the Federal Reserve, the drug laws, virtually all other cabinets and departments not specifically authorized by the Constitution and we’ve got the ball knocked out of the park.
America’s choice: Arizona or San Francisco?
Shouldn’t that read “San Fransicko?”
Outstanding article. It’s too bad that most of the opponents of the Arizona bill won’t take the time of have the interest to actually read it.
I commend State Senator Russell Pearce for setting the record straight. IMO, the only ones opposing this bill are illegals, liberals, communist, and most Dems. They are trying to turn the United States into another country all together. And, the Dems are doing it all of the future dollar and vote.
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