So today was the Arizona decision, summary here.
In principle I liked the three provisions that were struck down. It should be a crime for people to be in this country without permission and those laws should be enforced. However, immigration law and the related enforcement policies are clearly the purview of the federal government. In a way I'm sympathetic to the notion that the feds are failing to meet their obligations and therefore the states have a right to step in, but ultimately the remedy for that is through the political process. I might be persuaded to change my mind down the road, but at this point I think the Supreme Court got t right.
On the one provision that survived for now, checking immigration status of a person stopped or arrested, I think they got that right too. The question now is how will it be implented and how quickly a challenge will arise based on discrimination or other constitutional grounds. And you can bet your sweet britches it will challenged the second the opportunity arises. Which is fine really. If they can't find a way to implement it within the constitution it should get tossed too.
I'm not sure how big a deal it is that the one provision survived this SCOTUS term anyway. Okay, some local jurisdiction holds somebody for a crime and it comes back from ICE that he's here illegally. They can't charge him for that, only the feds can. So if the state charge doesn't pan out or even if he does some kind of state time, they have to put him back on the street if ICE doesn't want him. This provision will likely help ICE get its hands on illegals that are high priority, but beyond that I don't see the impact.
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