Arizona's Immigration Bill

The complete text of Arizona's strict new immigration law, AZ Senate Bill 1070, is available here, in pdf format. It is in 12 sections, the last of which indicates the title of the bill to be "the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act." The following summary of it's contents does not include any subsequent amendments; it is only a summary as the bill as originally passed and signed.

1. Intent - states that the bill is intended to unify immigration enforcement across federal, state, and local jurisdictions and to fight illegal immigration.
2. Enforcement - amends state law to provide that:
   1. Sanctuary cities and other inconsistent immigration enforcement within Arizona is banned.
   2. AZ state cops will make "a reasonable attempt" to verify citizenship status "where reasonable suspicion exists" and "when practicable" "for any lawful contact." [see definitions]
   3. If an illegal immigrant convicted of any state or local crime is to be turned over to ICE (Immigration, The Feds).
   4. Unless banned by some other law, AZ police "may securely transport" illegal aliens to Federal custody.
   5. State cops "may" arrest any individual if there is "probable cause" of some deportable offense without a warrant. [see definitions]
   6. Unless banned by federal law, state officials or agencies cannot be prohibited from handling immigration status information to determine eligibility for public services, licensing, determining residence, confirming a detainee's identity, or determining compliance with federal immigration law.
   7. State and local agencies that adopts a policy of immigration non-enforcement can have that policy challenged by anyone in state superior court. Punishments, at the court's discretion, may include paying for the trial costs and/or a fine of between $1,000 and $5,000 per day.
   8. Money collected from such fines pays for the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission (GIT EM), a state law enforcement agency.
   9. If an officer was just following orders in breaking this law, the punishment goes to his agency.
   10. Enforcement of this law must comply with federal law, especially civil rights and due process laws.
3. Trespassing - amends state law to provide that:
   1. Illegal aliens on public property are trespassing.
   2. Immigration status is to be verified by the feds in these cases.
   3. Those sentenced for this crime must stay constantly in custody until the sentence is served.
   4. They are also to be fined at least $500 for a first offense and double that for subsequent offenses.
   5. This money goes to GIT EM and to reimburse county jails for immigration enforcement costs.
   6. This counts as a Class 1 Misdemeanor, except:
      1. It's a Class 3 Felony if they had drugs, deadly weapons, or tools of terrorism in their possession at the time.
      2. It's a Class 4 Felony for a second offense or if the USA has deported them in the past 60 days.
4. Smuggling - A section E is added to state human smuggling laws stating that "any peace officer may" stop any vehicle if they have "reasonable suspicion" they are disobeying civil traffic laws while smuggling humans. [see definitions]
5. Solicitation for Employment & Harboring Aliens - makes it a Class 1 Misdemeanor to obstruct traffic in order to recruit day workers, or for people legally ineligible to work in the United States to solicit employment. Also, makes it a criminal offense to transport or harbor illegal aliens, or encourage illegal aliens to move to Arizona. Vehicles used to illegally transport illegal aliens must be impounded. It's a Class 1 Misdemeanor and at least a $1,000 fine, unless it's 10 or more aliens at once in which case it's a Class 6 Felony and at least $1,000 per person.
6. Employing Illegals - the AZ state laws making it illegal to employ illegal aliens are amended to include a means for employers to claim law enforcement tricked them into it (entrapment), with the burden of proof on the employers.
7. Employing Illegals Again - same as Section 6, but for a different version of the same law (Section 23-212 vs. Section 23-212.01). I don't know why Arizona law includes the same text twice, but the fact that it does required them to amend it twice.
8. Verifying Employment Eligibility - the AZ state law requiring employers to verify the employment status of new employees is amended to require the employer to keep those employment status records for the full term of employment or three years, whichever is longer.
9. Impoundment of Vehicles - amended to list harboring or transporting of illegal immigrants as a valid reason to impound a vehicle.
10. GIT EM - establishes Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team and Enforcement Mission as a state government agency that manages immigration enforcement funds.
11. Procedural Details - this law is intended to obey all federal laws, but if any part of it is found inconsistent with federal law the inconsistency of that part will not be construed to affect the rest of the law.
12. Names the bill the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. What's that acronym, SOLE-SNA? SOLE-Safe? It's kinda awkward, and sounds isolationist.

Definitions

GIT EM

Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team and Enforcement Mission, the Arizona state agency established by this bill to handle the funding and finances of the new expense of this new state-level enforcement of federal immigration law.

ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Federal Government's immigration agency. Formerly the INS; Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Lawful Contact

This bill is famous for coining the term "lawful contact," since it didn't strictly have a definition before. It generally means "the kind of contact cops have with folks through official business", but Arizona had to pass another law defining the term more strictly in the face of public criticism of it's ambiguity. The amended version calls it "a lawful stop, detention or arrest." More on that when I cover the amendments in a later post.

May

If you may do something, you have permission but no mandate or requirement to. It's an option available to you, if you so choose.

Peace Officer

General term for any officer of any law enforcement agency, including police officers, parole officers, customs officers, court officers, corrections officers, etc.

Probable Cause

The amount of proof needed for police to arrest a suspect or for a judge to issue a warrant.

Reasonable Attempt

To make a reasonable attempt is to try but resist being fanatical about it. If it's not doable, fine. Move on to something else. "Reasonable" in the legal sense has it's basis in the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. However, the phrase "reasonable attempt" is in the common vernacular, not legalese.

Reasonable Suspicion

The 4th Amendment of the Constitution protects against unreasonable search and seizure. Reasonable suspicion is a legal term for the standard of proof necessary for a search or seizure to be allowable by the 4th Amendment, meaning that the cop must be able to articulate facts in court to defend his decision to conduct the search or seizure. It can't just be a hunch. [source]

Standards of Proof

Hunch

You think something is up, but you can't explain why. This is enough evidence to alter individual behavior, but is insufficient for any legal action.

Reasonable Suspicion

Enough evidence that you can explain why you are suspicious and most folks will agree that it looks suspicious. This is enough evidence for a police officer to conduct an impromptu search, such as frisking a suspect or pulling a car over, but not necessarily enough to enter a residence without the owner's permission or to arrest anyone.

Probable Cause

Enough evidence to be reasonably confident the suspect committed the crime. This is enough evidence for a cop to arrest a suspect, or for a judge to issue a search warrant. It's one of two requirements for a cop to enter a residence without permission (the other being exigent circumstances; it has to be an emergency of human health or life or the survival of evidence). It is not necessarily enough evidence to convict.

Without a Shadow of a Doubt

The evidence so obviously proves the claim that one cannot doubt it; it's clearly true. This is the standard of evidence for conviction of a crime.

The primary criticism of the bill is that allowing any peace officer with any reasonable reasonable suspicion of lapsed immigration status permission to investigate (by, say, asking for state ID) at any time qualifying under the vague condition of "lawful contact" lends itself to civil rights abuses both of immigrants and of Hispanics and other minorities likely to be suspected of illegal immigration. The rebuttal is that the "reasonable suspicion" must be articulable in court without any mention of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, as a determination made on those grounds would constitute discrimination by federal law and, thus, are explicitly excluded by Section 2-J of the bill.

Another criticism is that it mandates officers to check immigration status. In rebuttal, the word "may" is used 19 times in the bill and it mandates agencies to allow their officers to check immigration status if they so choose, whereas only one section (2-B) requires an officer to do anything. Even then, what constitutes "reasonable suspicion", "a reasonable attempt", and what is "practicable" are, by practical necessity, left to the officer's personal judgment to varying degrees.

Another criticism is that it doesn't change the law enough to make any relevant change to Arizona's culture, as intended. Personally, I think establishing a new state agency, defining two or three new crimes, and synchronizing federal, state, and local enforcement is a substantial change and there will probably be some effect (even if it's just pushing illegal immigrants into neighboring states). I suppose the content of the amendments and the results of the backlash must be taken into account before I can be completely certain, though.

StarCraft 2

I finally played my first game of the StarCraft 2 beta. It's one of the few modern video games I care anything about, having so loved the original and not having yet seen a Blizzard game that was not fantastic.

StarCraft 2 is fantastic all over again. It's much like the original, except optimized. They've managed to create a greater diversity of tactical possibilities with fewer, more interesting units, fewer upgrades, and some new terrain tricks and control options. Very nice game design.

I managed to win my first game, 1 Protoss vs. 1 Protoss, but not by some great skill on my behalf. The opponent (a random internet stranger) had me beat completely early on, but failed to follow through. By creating a trap or two, and creating a few new towns he didn't know about, I was able to get back into competition without his knowledge and surprise him with a formidable force just as he ran out of resources.

It's a dang fun game.

Food Silliness

I decided on an unusual dinner last night: a mashed potato buffet. Four kinds of mashed potatoes, three kinds of gravy. The turkey gravy on cream of mushroom potatoes was the best.

Variety is the spice of life.

Searching...

Google can't search for what I really need: happiness, meaning, success.

Workers and The Right

In politics, the term "workers" carries connotations of unions, strikes, and Marxism; in short, left-wing politics. It's thought that the honorable working class and their unions are typically Democrats and their rich, manipulative managers are Republicans. I've always disagreed with that interpretation. Unions are Democrat, sure, and Republicans typically aspire to (and often achieve) financial success in business. While unions represent a centralizing authority contrary to the principles of American conservatism, individual workers doing good work for the best pay they can negotiate is a standard conservatives are happy to bare.

In the recent Tea Party sponsored walk on Washington, many present stated they had never been away from work to protest before - these were right-wing workers, protesting an increasing tax burden and pay decreased by inflation. At the other end of the modern political spectrum is President Obama, who hopes students are "aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers." ^{[ABC News/NAACP speech]} That's fine and good (I fully support the part about ballers and rappers), but he ostentatiously ignores workers.

Isn't it a valid dream to make sweet motorbikes or fine watches or kickin' computers? Isn't it honorable to be able to drive past a beautiful building and say "I did that brickwork."? Is there no respect for the men and women who make the bulk of the economic engine of which Americans are so proud run and run well? Personally, I see a blue-collar beauty to that kind of work. Men with black grease on their calloused hands and torn overalls make the rest of our lifestyles possible. And their lifestyles aren't so bad, either; more plumbers own their own yacht than scientists or professors do.

But my respect for the great Skilled Worker leaves me pretty unique in modern politcs -- or so I thought. Turns out I have a kindred spirit from the cast of Cheers: John Ratzenberger runs a non-profit organization called Nuts, Bolts, and Thingamajigs that seeks to bring back the American manufacturer as a figure of honor and prominence; to, as they say, "to nurture the tinkering spirit". If the name Ratzenberger doesn't ring a bell, think of Cliff Clavin of Cheers, the piggybank in Toy Story, or the timeless line "Don't worry; it's lemon!" from Monster's Inc. The perennial everyman of Cheers, it turns out, is an advocate of the worker in the real world, too.

And more power too him! May the independent tradesman flourish!

And now for something completely different...

I offer you the story of Weird Harold:

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved her Grandpa and Grandma very much. Late one night, Grandpa came to visit, and she was so excited to see him she couldn't sleep. Grandpa asked, "If I tell you a story will you go to sleep like a good girl?"

"Well... okay," the girl said, "But it better be a good story."

Grandpa chuckled. "I'll tell the best story I have, the story of Weird Harold." It went like this:

---

When the children went to play on the blacktop at recess, they never played with Harold. He didn't play on the swings or at the kickball diamond. He would always walk in lazy circles by himself. Sometimes he would pick up a pebble. Sometimes he would put one down just so. Sometimes he would just stand and look at them. It didn't look like any fun. If someone invited him to play regular games, Harold would growl at them and chase them away. It was weird. So they called him Weird Harold.

Harold was happy with that. He liked to play alone with his many small pebbles.

One day, a quiet little girl from Weird Harold's class sat and watched Weird Harold. She watched as he walked in lazy circles. She watched as he stopped to pick up a pebble. She watched later as he stopped to put it down with a lot of other pebbles. When he walked away to find more, she took a step closer so she could see the pebbles. Then another step. The pebbles weren't just put anywhere. They were put just so, in a little square with circles at the corners.

"Are you going to ask me to come play with you?" It was Weird Harold. The quiet little girl didn't notice that he'd come up behind her. She didn't say anything. It was quiet for a long time.

Harold asked, "What's your name?" The quiet little girl didn't answer. It was quiet for a long time.

"Okay. You can watch," said Weird Harold. He put another pebble on the blacktop with the others. He stood up and looked around. None of the other children were paying him any attention except the quiet little girl. Weird Harold was glad about that. It was quiet for a long time.

He took another pebble out of his pocket. It was a different kind of pebble. It was shiny and clear and very pale blue, like the sky. It was beautiful. He put the beautiful pebble with the others. He put it alone inside the square. Then he stood still and looked at it for a long time. He looked around for other children again, but they weren't paying him any attention. Except for the quiet little girl.

Harold turned to the quiet little girl. "This one is the Princess," he told her. "She lives in her castle. Evil knights come to steal away her beauty and make her boring like all the other pebbles. I'm the good dragon. I protect her. When evil knights come, I growl and breath fire and they go away." He looked at the little girl. It was quiet for a long time. Then he said very quietly, "She's my favorite."

The bell rang. It was time to go back inside. Weird Harold quickly snatched up the Princess and put her in his pocket. He snatched up lots of other pebbles and put them in his pockets, too. He didn't want to be late getting back to class.

The quiet little girl watched him pick up pebbles. She looked very determined. She opened her mouth and said, "My name is Jill." Then she ran across the blacktop back to class. Harold was surprised. Then he grabbed a few more pebbles and went inside, too.

After that, Jill and Harold spent a every recess together. Harold would tell her adventures with the pebbles and the Princess. There was always the Princess. Jill would mostly watch. Sometimes she would say something, but usually she was quiet.

One day, Jill spoke up. She said, "I never talk to anyone else. Only you. You wait for me to talk. Everyone else just wants to talk, not listen." It was quiet for a long time. Then she said, "I'm glad you're Weird, Harold."

Harold said, "I'm glad you talk to me."

As the days went past, it got warmer. The school year was going to end. Jill and Harold wouldn't see each other for months, and there wasn't anything they could do about it.

"Are you going to be here next year, too?" asked Harold.

"Yes," said Jill. It was quiet for a long time. Then Harold reached into his pocket and took out a pebble. He held it out to Jill. It was shiny and clear and very pale blue, like the sky. It was the Princess.

Harold said, "Take it. Promise you'll give it back next year. It's my favorite." Jill took the Princess. She put it in her pocket. It was quiet for a long time.

Then it was summer. Harold didn't enjoy summer without Jill, and Jill didn't enjoy summer without Harold. Then summer was over, and school started again. At the first recess, Jill ran straight out to Harold smiling. She handed him a pebble. It was the Princess. Harold took the Princess out of Jill's hand. Harold also held on to Jill's hand. They both smiled, and it was quiet for a long time.

Years passed, and they grew up together. Every summer, Harold gave Jill the Princess. Every fall, Jill gave it back. They graduated, married, and aged. They had children and grandchildren. They were happy together for 64 years. Jill was always quiet, and Harold was always weird. Everyone called them "Jill and Weird Harold," like they were one person with one name. No one was ever happier. Every day Weird Harold told Jill, "You're my favorite."

When they were very old, Jill got sick. She was going away, and it was going to be quiet for a very long time. She told Weird Harold, "If you miss me, look in the old coffee can. I left you something." Then she went away.

---

"Do you know what was in the old coffee can?" Grandpa asked the little girl.

The little girl didn't answer. Grandpa reached into his pocket and pulled out a pebble. It was a different kind of pebble. It was shiny and clear and very pale blue, like the sky. It was beautiful. The little girl said very quietly, "It's the Princess!"

"Yes, it is," said Grandpa. "I want you to keep it. You can be the good dragon and protect it from evil knights. You can remember the story of Weird Harold. Maybe it'll make you happy." It was quiet for a long time.

"It already makes me happy," said the little girl. "It's a good story."

Grandpa chuckled. "Then it's time to go to sleep like a good little girl." He tucked her in. He kissed her on the forehead. He started to leave.

The little girl said, "Goodnight, Grandpa Harold. I love you."

Grandpa turned and smiled. "I love you, too, little Jill. You know, you look just like your Grandma Jill when she was your age." It was quiet for a long time. Then he left.

---

A few days later, little Jill went back to school. When the children went to play on the blacktop at recess, Jill didn't play with the other children. She didn't play on the swings or on the kickball diamond. She walked in lazy circles on the blacktop. Sometimes she'd pick up a pebble. Sometimes she'd put one down just so. If someone invited her to play regular games, she'd growl at them and chase them away. Someone called her Weird Jill. Jill was happy with that.

THE END

On Diversity and Strength

Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.

- General Casey on the Fort Hood shootings

When is diversity a strength? Religious diversity let to troubles in Northern Ireland. The diversity between Israelis and Palestinians along the Persian coast has not been strengthening. Canada has Quebecois separatists, Russia has Chechnyan rebels, China has Tibet. Which of these situations exemplifies strength drawn from diversity?

And yet there are countless cases of diversity creating strength. Where would America be without Christopher Columbus of Spain, Sacajawea of the Shoshone, Fredrick Douglass, our Irish Catholic President Kennedy, or Martin Luther King? Generals von Steuben of Germany and Lafayette of France were vital to the colonies' victory in the Revolution, itself motivated by the philosophies of the Scottish Enlightenment. Alexander Hamilton, father of the American system of economics, was half-French Huguenot, half-Scottish, and born out of wedlock in the Caribbean. Spiritual, gospel, blues, jazz, and rock 'n' roll music all arose first from African-Americans, and form the basis and origin of virtually all pop music. Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, and Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi) taught us to fight with honor, igniting an American obsession with martial arts. American society would be utterly different and dramatically worse without these champions from their diverse backgrounds.

But to invoke diversity to protect a murderous shooter is offensive and irrational. Regardless of his religion or ethnicity, he's a murderer who is documented to have long held radical anti-American ideas, even supporting attacks against the US military that protected his dangerous advocacy as an American freedom.

It is not freedom to protect that which destroys freedom. It is not diversity to protect that which violently attacks diversity. One who wishes an institution to fail should not be part of that institution; it is no failure of diversity to remove him from it, ideally before he guns down it's internal supporters.

For diversity to endure, tolerance must be denied those who are seeking to destroy it. To support diversity is to see this madman not as a Muslim that must therefore be sacrosanct and protected as a symbolic protection of all Muslims from group discrimination, but as a mad individual who deserves condemnation for his individual crimes. If others pursue his same crimes, let them be punished for their personal actions. If others share his same religion but reject his actions, they are innocent. But if individual Muslims in the military start confusing the extremism with the mainstream, how are they any better than white Americans confusing mainstream American Muslims with Al-Qaeda killers? It's the same vicious confusion, and should be condemned and punished equally regardless of the ethnicity of the confused person.

That's what the strengthening kind of diversity is: equality in judgment, blind to race, creed, or other background. General Casey is rejecting it in favor of special immunity for minorities, a repugnant and intolerable inequality that protects Muslims from the same criticisms to which all other Americans are subject. His use of the word "diversity" is a destructive lie.

In all fairness, the murderous shooter was actually right about one minor thing from back before he went nuts: he argued that Muslims should be able to request and receive conscious objector status and opt out of violent confrontation with other Muslims in the Afghani and Iraqi fronts. German American soldiers were stationed in the Pacific Front in WW2 by the same good reasoning, to protect against brother fighting brother or, worse, our soldiers switching sides. Except then it was a universal requirement and I only advocate the option be available.