It is quite amazing the number of new laws concerning immigration. It is equally interesting the number of new immigration laws which cannot be settled by the lower courts, and how many of these cases are being pushed toward State Supreme Courts, or the United States Supreme Court. Even immigration laws that prevent illegal aliens from breaking the law have been taken as unconstitutional. This is because Americans love their freedom and liberty, and they wish the same for all persons, even those who are in our nation without permission.
Perhaps you haven’t heard about “Secure Communities” – it is a program that assists law enforcement with information and criminal record checks for illegal immigrants. In other words, catching the bad apples who are illegally in the US, rather than illegal immigrants who are for the most part law abiding, trying to build a better life, escape drug cartel violence, and work here. It turns out that the system “secure communities” works because all the states (24 so far) join in on the same computer network.
Well, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times on June 11, 2011 titled; “Seven Democrats ask Brown to suspend California’s participation in Secure Communities – The legislators join the Los Angeles City Council in opposing the program that identifies illegal immigrants with criminal records,” by Paloma Esquivel, which indicated that governor Jerry Brown is considering the legal ramifications and challenges this law might cause due to protests from immigration activists. The article stated;
“In 2008, it was a way to target serious convicts for deportation. The fingerprints of all arrestees booked into local jails are forwarded to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for screening. Now the Critics say a large % are caught up, as they have been arrested but not convicted of a crime or are low-level offenders, thus, it discourages illegal immigrants from reporting crimes or cooperating with police investigations.”
Interestingly enough, this is a very good argument because if crimes go unreported because people are afraid of talking to the police, then there will be a whole slew of crimes occurring, and victims as well as perpetrators where justice is never seen. So on one hand we can provide justice by preventing less than ethical people from staying in our country, but as we do that, we are allowing for more crime to occur, which will go unpunished.
Surely, this debate will not end here and now, not in California, Arizona, Alabama, Tennessee, or a host of other states which are passing various laws geared towards illegal immigrants. But you can bet there will be some of these cases that make it to the highest court in the land, until then, we should all just hope these things don’t get out of hand. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.