Arizona's Illegal Immigration Law

What do we say and do about the Obama Administration’s usurpation of American’s rights?

Ok, so here we are: Arizona has passed a law which states that local law enforcement officers must pursue investigation of immigration infractions if, in the course of investigating some other violation, they suspect a violation of the federal immigration code.

Over the course of several decades, political forces have dulled the edge of the blade of justice, so that illegal immigrants are no longer pursued or prosecuted. Indeed, the matter of immigration has been politicized to an extreme by the left, so that those who wish to clamp down on the steady wave of illegal immigrants are now considered “racist” and “bigots” for trying to prevent “honest” people from working for a living.

In addition, it seems that every month brings another city making a declaration that they will be a City of Refuge, meaning that officers are prohibited from arresting any illegal immigrant if their only crime is entering the country illegally. In some instances, such as in San Fransisco, these cities of refuge go so far as to instruct their city employees that they may not assist Federal officers in any way to apprehend or prosecute illegal immigrants.

The Federal Government has now filed suit in Federal Court against Arizona’s new law, seeking an injunction on the basis that Arizona is usurping Federal authority. This is based on the assumption of “preeminent authority,” which is to say that the Federal Government believes that only it has the authority to write laws which govern immigration issues.

At stake here is no less than the breakdown of the Constitution as it was intended. Several arguments have come forward in defense of the Obama Adminstration’s suit against Arizona, the most prominent being that Arizona is preempting Federal law. But, anyone who understands the doctrine of preemption, knows clearly that this doctrine is not applicable in this regard.

The Doctrine of Preemption is a doctrine that states that if a state or municipality should pass a law that CONFLICTS with Federal law, that the Federal law will take precedence. It’s very important to understand that if there is no confliction, then the Federal government has no standing to file a lawsuit. Indeed, the actual filing of this suit is a frivolous action that Americans should be ashamed of for their leaders.

This is why the Obama Administration’s actions can clearly be seen as political and not on behalf of an “abused” people. Are we to believe that these liberals in the DOJ are unaware of another equally applicable doctrine called the Doctrine of Concurrent Enforcement? This doctrine states that a law is not conflict-preempted if the state law prohibits the same behavior that is already prohibited by federal law. So, if the state is assisting the federal government in enforcement of immigration laws, it is stated that that state is concurrently enforcing what is already prohibited under federal law. This happens all the time!