Judge Upholds Arizona Immigration Law

At long last, opponents of Arizona’s controversial 2010 immigration law that allows police officers to ask for citizenship papers when they suspect an individual is here illegally have been defeated. Even longtime critics of SB1070 were forced to admit Friday that there are few further avenues protesters can take.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton dismissed a new challenge to the law which argued that police would use the statute as an excuse to racially profile and harass local Latinos. Bolton said that challengers had “not produced any evidence that state law enforcement officials will enforce SB1070 differently for Latinos than a similarly situated person of another race or ethnicity.”

The law itself went into effect in 2010 following years of Arizona anger regarding poor federal immigration enforcement. In many ways, it is the opposite of the policies supported by San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other so-called sanctuary cities. Instead of expressly forbidding law enforcement officers from asking detainees about their immigration status, the Arizona law encourages them to do so. For some reason, though, the idea of using the police to monitor and enforce the law is a highly controversial one.

Consider what President Obama said about the law shortly after it was signed by Governor Jan Brewer. Speaking at a naturalization ceremony from the Rose Garden, Obama said the law could “undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities.”

Okay. So. Hold on.

Having police ask suspected illegals to produce their documents…undermines fairness? Undermines trust?

We have really run off the rails if that’s the case.

Instead of tearing down Arizona’s law, it should become a model for the rest of the country. If local police everywhere were allowed and encouraged to check on the immigration status of the people they detain, we could solve the immigration crisis within a decade. Is anyone interested in actually doing that? Does anyone care one whit about enforcing the law?

We’ve gone way overboard when it comes to this issue of racial profiling. No, Hispanic Americans don’t deserve to be harassed daily by cops, but are we really going to pretend like there is no racial component to be considered? Of those 11 million illegal aliens, how many come from Greenland? How many come from Australia? Come on. We know the deal. That’s not an excuse for harassment, but we can’t build an effective law enforcement platform from fairy dust and idealized dreams. Our national kindness is being exploited as a weakness.