OK, now I'm scared.
I seem pretty "American." Brown hair, green eyes, no accent. But I don't carry my birth certificate with me. If I take a walk with my husband around the neighborhood, I don't even have my driver's license. And I've always thought that as long as I didn't - you know - hold up a bank or stab someone, no one would haul me into jail.
Then again...
Arizona has just taken the next step towards the fascist state the Tea Partiers love to warn us about - except that they aren’t decrying this one. The latest bill passed by the Copper State’s legislature, and just today signed into law by Gov. Brewer, would make it a crime in that state for an illegal immigrant not to carry an alien registration document. It also would require police to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally.
Where do I begin?
First of all, any crime that makes it illegal for an illegal immigrant to do anything illegal is just ludicrous on its face. Kind of like making it illegal to rob a bank with a Glock. (And anyone who doesn't get that can just stop reading. Come to think of it, they probably never started.)
Second of all, what would constitute "reason to suspect" that someone is in the country illegally? Lucky for us that our friends at azcentral.com have given us an overview. In a Q&A format, University of Arizona law professor Gabriel Chin, and Kris Kobach of University of Missouri-Kansas City law school (the latter who helped to write the legislation), have given us their professional assessment of how the law might play out in the real world.
I like Professor Chin's answer better. Well, not "like" so much as "respect." He says that "if you look Mexican or Hispanic or Asian or Black, then you should carry ID" because "there's already some evidence" (that being your very tan face or very slanted eyes) that you might trigger "reasonable suspicion." Anyone perusing his curriculum vitae would see that Professor Chin is widely published on immigration issues. And he perhaps has a unique perspective on this issue, looking reasonably suspiciously Asian himself. But he brings up only one of two points that have troubled me most about this new law.
The first concern has been well-aired of late: that of racial profiling. This should be of obvious concern to anyone whose description fits within the list of usual suspects that Professor Chin outlined. My daughter-in-law was born in Peru, but she is a naturalized citizen of the US. I was born in this country, so she worked harder for that "citizen" designation that I did. But she is dark-skinned and has an accent, so in Arizona, she will have to carry her "papers." And if, God forbid, she were ever mugged in Mesa, she might find herself locked up next door to her assailant until one of us can drive down there with some replacement documents for her.
The second point, however, is not one I've heard anyone put forward: political profiling. The standard of "reasonable suspicion," as far as I've been able to tell, is not defined. What if I have a t-shirt or bumper sticker that a cop takes exception to? What if he thinks my sentiment is supsicously unAmerican? And what if he's just a jerk? But it couldn't happen here. Could it? If the press round-ups at the 2008 GOP convention didn't get your attention, if Bush's Free-Speech Zones didn't rub you the wrong way, then just Google "police stop for bumper stickers" and see if any of the hits sound like stories from the Land of the Free. "Live Free or Die" will get you pulled over in some jurisdictions. And if you have "9/11 was an inside job" on your car, you'd better get yourself either some adhesive remover or a lawyer on retainer.
Over the past eight years, we have had Hitler analogies and socialist-fascist-totalitarian hyperbole flung from the Left and now from the Right, to the point that we seem to have been desensitized to it in the same way that we have learned to ignore "damn" and "Hell" during Prime Time. Now, it seems, we may have to learn to tolerate yet another previously offensive phrase from the darker pages of history:
"Papers, please."
I seem pretty "American." Brown hair, green eyes, no accent. But I don't carry my birth certificate with me. If I take a walk with my husband around the neighborhood, I don't even have my driver's license. And I've always thought that as long as I didn't - you know - hold up a bank or stab someone, no one would haul me into jail.
Then again...
Arizona has just taken the next step towards the fascist state the Tea Partiers love to warn us about - except that they aren’t decrying this one. The latest bill passed by the Copper State’s legislature, and just today signed into law by Gov. Brewer, would make it a crime in that state for an illegal immigrant not to carry an alien registration document. It also would require police to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally.
Where do I begin?
First of all, any crime that makes it illegal for an illegal immigrant to do anything illegal is just ludicrous on its face. Kind of like making it illegal to rob a bank with a Glock. (And anyone who doesn't get that can just stop reading. Come to think of it, they probably never started.)
Second of all, what would constitute "reason to suspect" that someone is in the country illegally? Lucky for us that our friends at azcentral.com have given us an overview. In a Q&A format, University of Arizona law professor Gabriel Chin, and Kris Kobach of University of Missouri-Kansas City law school (the latter who helped to write the legislation), have given us their professional assessment of how the law might play out in the real world.
- Question: Do I have to carry an ID card all the time now, to prove I'm a citizen?
- Answer: No, the law does not require citizens to prove their citizenship. Professor Kobach's answer actually says: "If the person merely asserts that he is a U.S. citizen, that's good enough." Ok, then. If you're a citizen and you say you're a citizen, you're fine. If you're here illegally, though, and you say you're a citizen, and can't prove it, then we can haul you in.
- Not Answered: How is it determined that you’re a citizen who does not have to prove you’re a citizen? And how long can the police keep you in the hoosegow while you’re proving/not proving it?
I like Professor Chin's answer better. Well, not "like" so much as "respect." He says that "if you look Mexican or Hispanic or Asian or Black, then you should carry ID" because "there's already some evidence" (that being your very tan face or very slanted eyes) that you might trigger "reasonable suspicion." Anyone perusing his curriculum vitae would see that Professor Chin is widely published on immigration issues. And he perhaps has a unique perspective on this issue, looking reasonably suspiciously Asian himself. But he brings up only one of two points that have troubled me most about this new law.
The first concern has been well-aired of late: that of racial profiling. This should be of obvious concern to anyone whose description fits within the list of usual suspects that Professor Chin outlined. My daughter-in-law was born in Peru, but she is a naturalized citizen of the US. I was born in this country, so she worked harder for that "citizen" designation that I did. But she is dark-skinned and has an accent, so in Arizona, she will have to carry her "papers." And if, God forbid, she were ever mugged in Mesa, she might find herself locked up next door to her assailant until one of us can drive down there with some replacement documents for her.
The second point, however, is not one I've heard anyone put forward: political profiling. The standard of "reasonable suspicion," as far as I've been able to tell, is not defined. What if I have a t-shirt or bumper sticker that a cop takes exception to? What if he thinks my sentiment is supsicously unAmerican? And what if he's just a jerk? But it couldn't happen here. Could it? If the press round-ups at the 2008 GOP convention didn't get your attention, if Bush's Free-Speech Zones didn't rub you the wrong way, then just Google "police stop for bumper stickers" and see if any of the hits sound like stories from the Land of the Free. "Live Free or Die" will get you pulled over in some jurisdictions. And if you have "9/11 was an inside job" on your car, you'd better get yourself either some adhesive remover or a lawyer on retainer.
Over the past eight years, we have had Hitler analogies and socialist-fascist-totalitarian hyperbole flung from the Left and now from the Right, to the point that we seem to have been desensitized to it in the same way that we have learned to ignore "damn" and "Hell" during Prime Time. Now, it seems, we may have to learn to tolerate yet another previously offensive phrase from the darker pages of history:
"Papers, please."
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