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Arizona leads the way backward on immigration reform
The long-deferred, urgent matter of immigration reform got a big kick in the pants yesterday. Arizona enacted a law that today's Times calls "the broadest and strictest immigration measure in generations."
Among other things, the law requires local police to demand papers from anyone officers have any reason to doubt is a citizen"anyone, in other words, who looks Mexican. If you're brown-skinned, and don't have your wallet, you're going to jail. Failure to carry immigration documents is now a crime in Arizona.
The mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, called the law "unconstitutional on its face." In a Washington Post Op-Ed today, Gordon blames local politicians who are "bitter, small-minded and full of hate," and he names names: state senator Russell Pearce, the sponsor of the bill, and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whom I profiled last summer.
President Obama's response to the news was well-aimed. While criticizing the Arizona law as "misguided," he blamed its passage on "our failure to act responsibly at the federal level." This came at a naturalization ceremony being held in the Rose Garden for twenty-four American soldiers born in China, Mexico, Ethiopia, and elsewhere. The symbolism of the scene was strong, but the failure fingered by Obama is real.
Border security and immigration control are federal responsibilities. Southern land-border states like Arizona suffer first and worst when those systems break down. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, is now talking about bringing major immigration-reform legislation to the floor after Memorial Day. The political momentum to pass such legislation, after the health-care reform success, may finally be at hand.