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John Brummett
We're mad and afraid, not racist
On immigration, the American people probably don't really think what they think they think.
Let's take one person, male, white, green-eyed, with light brown hair. Let's put him in Arizona to visit his aunt, driving a rented car through Tucson.
Let's have someone run a stoplight and collide with him, causing vehicular damage but no apparent injury. Let's have the Arizona policeman investigating the accident ask the man for his driver's license, which gets produced.
But then let's have the Arizona policeman suspect that the guy looks like he might be European, kind of German.
Let's have the Arizona policeman ask the man for his immigration documents. The guy says he doesn't have any actual immigration documents, and never has had any, because he was born in Arkansas and still lives there. He has a passport, stamped a couple of times, but he doesn't carry it within the United States.
So the policeman says that, under state law, he is obligated, based on that suspicion and the man's inability to produce documents, to detain the man while authorities check with federal officials about the man's citizenship.
Do you like the sound of that? Of course not.
But that's the Arizona law a majority of Americans favor, according to polling.
Here's the truth: European-looking people aren't going to be bothered by this law. Only Hispanic-looking people will be.
That's racist. We're more fair-minded than to accept that.
Here's why the Arizona law polls well: Americans are sick and tired -- more to the point, they're scared to death -- of a federal government that can't seem to do anything right.
It can't balance a budget. It can't stop oil from spewing right up on our sandy white beaches. It can't win a war outright. It can't find Osama bin Laden.
And it cannot provide for a system of orderly and legal entry of foreign persons into the country, primarily along the Mexican border.
So when the Obama administration sues to overturn this Arizona law as an infringement on the supremacy of the federal government, a basic constitutional premise, most American people recoil. It's not so much because they embrace the Arizona law, but because it infuriates them that the federal government would assert its responsibility over a beleaguered state when it does not effectively meet that responsibility to attend to the legitimate concerns of that beleaguered state.
We will never seal our southern border. But we can make it harder to cross. We can never round up all the undocumented people who cross it. But we can make it harder for employers to hire them.
And we can establish a tamper-resistant identification system for non-citizens.
Until we show some federal gumption in these regards, some competence and effectiveness, the American people will react in a way that makes them seem meaner than they are.
Democrats want tougher border enforcement as part of comprehensive reform that provides a practical and reasonable path to citizenship for the millions here without documents.
Republicans, seeing yet another winning anger-based issue for November, claim to want tougher border enforcement, but not a path to citizenship, at least until the tougher border enforcement is demonstrated.
I don't know why Democrats don't call the Republicans' bluff.
They should push for tougher enforcement only. Democrats could say rightly that we have amnesty already, thanks to Republicans who don't want to add order and reason to it, except, that is, by the occasional unconstitutional and racist state law.
Actually, I do know why. Democrats see their own political advantages in mobilizing the Hispanic vote by holding out for a path to citizenship before toughening the border.
Did I mention that another thing the federal government can't seem to do anymore is break through partisan self-interest actually to solve a problem?
John Brummett is an award-winning columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com.
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"...the Arizona policeman investigating the accident ask the man for his driver's license, which gets produced."
That's it, end of story. It doesn't matter if the guy is Hispanic or White. If he produces a
VALID drivers license then immigration status
will not come up, DUH! The law is pretty
specific about how to make those determinations.
If a cop is going to stop someone with the
intent of harassing someone for "driving while
Mexican" he's gonna do it whether HB1070 is in
force or not. Then he as an individual must be
dealt with.
This article is fear mongering and nothing more.
Def
Illegal is not a race, Jack.Head, it's a crime.
@Jack.Webb-
You must be talking about the New Black Panther Party. "I hate crackers, every last, single iota of them!" -King Samir Shabaz
He is clearly mad, afraid, and racist.
Yo Jack-head,
Would you include Harry in that? Do you think Obama is a light-skinned black who doesn't speak with a Negro dialect unless he wants too?
We have no immigration problem, we have an illegal immigration problem and Brummett scenario would be the same for ICE or Border Patrol when in contact with individuals. The officers in Arizona are not as flip to just hold someone without having real cause or concern, things like fake or stolen ID’s. The truth of the matter is enforcement works and is most cost effective, many criminals self-deport, and the fence as San Diego has proved is also effective. Those supporting illegal aliens have absolutely ethnic agendas and yet they make the racist accusations. Dishonest and a con.
Well, let's be sure to keep checking those 80 year old Swedish Grandmas at the airport, cause we wouldn't want anyone to accuse us of 'profiling' middle aged Muslim men that want to blow up our airplanes. Right? Same principle with the animus to the AZ law. Right?
Why aren’t all those supporting the massive numbers of one ethnic group breaking a number of laws besides illegal entry considered racist? Would these same supporting people be as supportive if the illegals were from somewhere different not speaking Spanish? There is mainly one truly vocal group refusing to fairly and honestly have dialogue to accurately get the answers about costs, harm or benefit from illegal aliens and that group is the Hispanic/Latino that supports it. They won’t even come to the table for dialogue. The story that Mr. Brummett spews is exaggerated but in some form already goes on in RI and Missouri and there are a number of white illegals in these states. The fact of the matter is officers will be receiving more training and need the OK from superior officers with decisions on immigration. The fact that more Hispanic/Latino will be question is because they are the largest group that enters illegally and it would be the same scenario for ICE or the Border Patrol. More disingenuous nonsense from those claiming they want border security but truthfully are open border advocates. God bless the strength and courage of Arizona.
"JOHN BRUMMETT: We're mad and afraid, not racist."
A lot of people are mad and afraid AND racist.
Mr. Brummett's article is misinformed at best, disingenuous at worst.
Either he hasn't read the law, or he has and chose to ignore the law as written and engage in false inflammatory rhetoric.
The law specifically states that a state-issued ID, drivers' licenses included, from ANY state, is sufficient to pre-empt any inquiry into immigration status by Arizona law enforcement. In other words, under the Arizona law, if you produce a valid drivers' license from any state, regardless of your appearance, command of the English language, or accent, no inquiry can legally be made into your immigration status. Interestingly, federal officials need no reasonable suspicion to detain someone until their immigration status can be confirmed, whether valid ID, a birth certificate, or Passport is presented to them. So, which law is more tyrannical?
Brummett, who has otherwise been a pretty good writer, appears to have cast aside a value priceless to any who write journalism for a living- credibility. He has abandoned one of the most basic qualifications to his trade and should be held accountable.
Oh what a surprise! Another RJ journalist making false claims! A valid drivers license is all that is asked for in AZ. If you don't have that, then further documentation must be produced. Don't believe me? Drive over to AZ NOW and speed through Wickenburg. The truth, (if you can recognize it) will set you free, John!