The Fallacy of the Arizona Immigration Bill

I try and look at politics as a continuum and not a single-step process. So initially I took the AZ law criminalizing illegal immigration with a grain of salt – until I got a closer look at what the bill contained and what it mandates from our law enforcement.

The bill, as written, mandates that:

police would be required to question anyone they suspect of being undocumented.

My main question is: how? What would the police use to determine suspicion of “being undocumented?” Will it be someone’s clothes, someone’s accent or someone’s skin color?

I grew up in southern Colorado around people descended from Spanish colonizers of the American southwest. All of them had roots in this country stretching back 300-400 years and most of them spoke a distinct form of Castilian Spanish as their first language. They were all fluent in English but at home and amongst themselves they spoke Spanish. Would they be under suspicion of being “undocumented” in Arizona and subject to a police demand for their documents – despite the fact they and their families have probably lived in this country far longer than those demanding they prove their citizenship? Do tourists from Japan playing on Arizona’s fabled golf courses now have to carry their passports in case police ask to see their documents? And are police now going to be trained in the intricacies of the American visa system so they know who can be in the country without a visa and who cannot?

The absurdities of this new law are numerous but overshadowing the ridiculousness of turning local law enforcement into enforcers of federal immigration law is what really underlies this law – racism. I don’t use that word lightly and as a matter of fact think it’s overused far too often, but a law requiring police to check the immigration status of anyone they deem “undocumented” without providing a constitutionally-acceptable standard for that suspicion relies on people’s basest instinct as to what makes one “undocumented.” And that’s almost always, if not 100% of the time, the color of one’s skin. This is a racist law motivated by racism and xenophobia.

The backers of this new law claim it will help enhance America’s “security.” They mutter about 9/11 and terrorism without addressing the salient fact that none of the terrorists who carried out 9/11 were illegal immigrants - they were legal visitors, given visas by a Department of State clerk who overlooked numerous and glaring ommissions on their visa applications.

Addressing the issue of American security requires that we focus the attentions of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies in equal part both outside and inside our country – not on those who are legally residing within it. And it’s a manipulation of people’s worst instincts to focus a law like this on undocumented people who are here doing work most Americans wouldn’t do no matter how much you paid them. It’s shocking that a draconian law like this, backed by the most simple minds within the Republican party (people like Sarah Palin) managed to make it out of committee, through the legislature and was signed by a venal governor who at this point would do anything to ensure her election to the post she inherited when her predecessor was appointed Homeland Security Secretary.

At the Josef Korbel School we’re taught to look at all sides when analyzing a problem – to use our knowledge of systems, theories, languages and other cultures to arrive at the simplest yet most well-grounded answer which fits the parameters and complexities of the problem we’re addressing. It’s through that knowledge that I am confident in saying this bill will do nothing to enhance American’s security because it’s based on a logical fallacy – that more enforcement and more draconian laws will solve America’s problems. I base that on the knowledge I’ve gained at the Josef Korbel school as well as this quote by Professor Paul Viotti’s favorite military strategist Karl Von Clausewitz:

If you entrench yourself behind strong fortifications you compel the enemy seek a solution elsewhere.

Shane Hensinger

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