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Arpaio's illegal immigrant sweeps are to be condemned
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has been boxed around in this column for his failure to take action to prevent congregating day laborers from interfering with lawful commerce.
I believe that illegal immigration is a net detriment to the country and the state. The increase in economic output is more than offset by the drain on public treasuries and the depressing effect on the wages of native-born workers.
I would support amnesty at the national level as part of a reform that sharply restricted future low-skilled immigration.
In the meantime, however, I think Arizona should pursue a policy of attrition to reduce the incidence of illegal immigration and discourage its expansion.
That includes the new state employer sanctions for hiring illegal workers.
It would also involve all local law enforcement agencies getting cross-trained to enforce federal immigration laws and determining the immigration status of those they stop, cite and detain.
People will agree or disagree with these views on various immigration issues, often passionately. However, irrespective of positions on other immigration issues, there should be unanimity regarding the immigration sweeps being conducted by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
They should be universally condemned as a gross abuse of his discretion and an assault on the American creed of equality before and under the law.
Our society has made a serious mistake enacting a body of laws governing individual behavior that is too expansive to be universally enforced. In fact, there are some laws, for example those dealing with drug use, that society does not want to be universally enforced.
This gives law enforcement enormous discretion over which laws to enforce against whom. This discretion is the most dangerous power in American civil society today.
Part of the American creed is that people are to be treated alike by government irrespective of standing or status. It is also part of the American creed that we are to be protected from the unwarranted attention of the government.
Arpaio's sweeps aren't to suppress any unlawful activity other than illegal immigration. There has not been an epidemic of bad driving in poor Latino neighborhoods that threatens public safety.
Instead, Arpaio is invading poor Latino neighborhoods and vigorously enforcing laws, primarily traffic laws, that are ordinarily ignored or lightly enforced, for the actual purpose of catching illegal immigrants.
Now, it is certainly true that poor Latino neighborhoods are where illegal immigrants in Arizona are likely to be found.
However, a probability analysis is not a substitute for the probable cause required for the rule of law to prevail. Probable cause requires specific information about specific offenses committed by specific suspects.
In short, lawful residents who happened to be poor and Latino are being subjected to unwarranted attention from government because of their status.
The fact that a few illegal immigrants are also found in the process doesn't justify the gross abuse of discretion and the assault on the American creed involved. We are a rules-based society not given to the proposition that the end justifies the means.
So, what to do about it?
Arpaio's hubris is a difficult mountain to overcome. It will require extraordinary action.
Much attention has been given lately to what Gov. Janet Napolitano will say or do. Similar attention will likely turn to Attorney General Terry Goddard shortly.
This is a situation in which silence is complicity. However, the involvement of additional Democratic politicians perceived to be soft on illegal immigration will merely enlarge the controversy without adding moral clarity.
Instead, a special moral obligation falls on two classes of Republican politicians.
The first is the Republican members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. They need to condemn what is being done in the county's name, and they need to explore what they can do to cut off funding for these immigration sweeps.
The second is the Republican members of Arizona's congressional delegation, who have the best ability to get the Bush administration to act.
They need also to condemn the sweeps. They need to ask the Department of Justice to investigate whether the sweeps can be stopped on civil rights grounds.
And they need to ask the Department of Homeland Security to investigate whether Arpaio has abused his delegated authority to enforce federal immigration laws.
The latter pains me to write. Arpaio is the only local law enforcement official doing the right thing in getting his force cross-trained.
What he is reporting is the only solid information available regarding the important question about the relationship between illegal immigration and other crimes. Other departments are shirking their duty.
But this is bigger than the immigration issue. This is about the character of our community and our commitment to the American promise of equality before and under the law.
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