Thread: Suing Arizona hurts chances for immigration overhaul

Our view on immigration: Suing Arizona hurts chances for immigration overhaul

The irony in the Justice Department's lawsuit to block Arizona's obnoxious new immigration law is that neither the suit nor the law would be necessary if Washington had done its job enforcing federal immigration laws in the first place.

OPPOSING VIEW:Act now to prevent profiling

The lawsuit, announced Tuesday, might allow the Obama administration to feel righteous, pretend it's doing something about the nation's immigration mess, and appeal to Hispanic voters ahead of November's congressional elections. What it doesn't do is hasten the necessary, comprehensive immigration reform that President Obama called for last week.

Don't get us wrong: The Arizona law — which requires local police, in the course of a lawful stop, to question the legal status of anyone they reasonably suspect of being in this country illegally — is draconian and, as the lawsuit argues, potentially an unconstitutional infringement on federal powers. But the law is also the product of simmering frustrations that boiled over in a border state that has suffered the consequences of decades of failed federal immigration policies.

Arizona is home to more than half a million illegal immigrants, sixth highest among the states. Even as the recession took hold in 2008, illegal immigrants made up about 10% of the state's labor force. One in every 10 students in its schools is the child of an illegal immigrant. And last year, while the flow of Mexican immigrants slowed drastically and about 400,000 left the U.S., another half-million managed to cross the border, many of them at points in Arizona.

Given that federal irresponsibility and inaction created much of the immigration mess, the lawsuit seems premature and unnecessarily inflammatory. The law doesn't even take effect until July 29. The harmful effects are, for now, theoretical. Government lawyers can't yet point to an instance of racial profiling, which would make their case stronger.

In last week's speech, Obama called for comprehensive immigration reform— the right solution — but in the same breath he alienated the very lawmakers, the Republicans, he'd need to make it happen. Arizonans have heard promises before from the federal government of "comprehensive reform," only to feel duped when just half of those promises were kept.

After President Reagan's 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granted legal status to 2.6 million illegal immigrants already living here, the government failed to follow through with the "control" part of the equation. Borders remained porous, and residents rightly wondered whether the law had meaning.

In 2007, a bipartisan bid for comprehensive reform, blessed by President Bush, collapsed in Congress after conservatives, and some liberals, rebelled.

Ignoring the problem hasn't made it go away. A poll last month showed two-thirds of Arizonans favored their state's new law, and similar measures have been introduced in five states. Nationally, smaller majorities favor it, too, even as many people believe that it could lead to discrimination against Hispanics.

Most Americans don't want to see such discrimination. In fact, they support a balanced approach that combines effective border enforcement, employer sanctions and a path to legality for illegal immigrants already here who stay out of trouble, pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements.

Suing Arizona now dramatically escalates tensions and sets back the cause of common-sense reform. The nation would be better served by a push for compromise, not an all-out attack on those dealing with the brunt of failed federal policies.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/ed ... 7_ST_N.htm

We already did that compromise crap in 86!

I'm glad they included this statement in the article.

The irony in the Justice Department's lawsuit to block Arizona's obnoxious new immigration law is that neither the suit nor the law would be necessary if Washington had done its job enforcing federal immigration laws in the first place.