Houston Chronicle
So what would the Arizona law add to what is already being done locally? The Arizona law says a person can be arrested solely because there is a "reasonable suspicion" that he or she is in the United States without proper documentation. The statute further says that a law enforcement officer who fails to detain an individual — based upon a "reasonable suspicion" that they are in the United States without proper documentation - is subject to being sued in court by any citizen. This law is opposed by police chiefs in Arizona as bad public policy. They question giving the priority of scant law enforcement resources to arrest individuals who are committing no crime other than a prior entry without the proper documentations, often a decade or two earlier, and are nonviolent.
Make no mistake. If enacted, this law will be used primarily to arrest mothers driving their children to school or going to work as a waitress at your favorite restaurant or to arrest a father driving to work on one of your favorite construction- or road-expansion projects or to care for your lawn. The Arizona police chiefs ask a good question Texans should consider. Why should the state take financial responsibility for enforcing U.S. immigration laws that treat both those who overstay their immigration status and, for the most part, those who entered the country illegally without proper documentation as a civil matter and not even as a crime?
Further, claims that America has an unenforced border are simply false. The budget for border enforcement went from $9.1 billion in 2003 to $17.2 billion this year. The annual budget for the U.S. Border Patrol alone has increased 714 percent since 1992. The deportations by the Obama administration are significantly higher than in the past. In addition, President Obama recently sent 1,200 additional National Guard troops to the Mexican border and has obtained $600 million in additional funding. Several sophisticated $10 million drones will also be patrolling the border joining other high tech detections systems. One could, in fact, argue that the U.S.-Mexico border is more secure than ever before.
Still, some politicians regularly say that the Arizona law is a response to a federal failure to secure our border. But rather than misleading the American public, our elected officials should support legislation that would actually work - not just recite divisive and misleading political rhetoric.
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