Arizona "your papers please" immigration law

[venepe]

thranx said:

venepe said:

It is funny how many people call on the Constitution to actually defend the Arizona Law.  The law is unconstitutional as in it is in violation of what the Constitution states.  Article 1 of the constitution grants Congress with exclusive powers over Immigration in various forms. Then it also grants implied powers throught the Necessary and Proper Clause.  And then the Constitution expresly provides with a Supremacy Clause.

So, no matter what good intentions or reasons Arizona may have, it is still agaisnt the Constitution of the United States to make such a law.

I read some arguments here that in "other countries you have to..." but you need to keed in mind that the US is not your typical Republic where there is a single government.  No, the US is a federation, so there are many governments working together.  So while Federal law says that if you are an alien you have to carry your passport or permit at all times, a state police officer has no right to demand it; only a federal officer can.  Sounds dumb, but that is just the nature of having two separate governments.  Just like state governments don't like the federal one to interfere in its affairs, so does the federal government.  The constitution gives it some powers and it is not going to allow the States to usurp it.

The whole argument about "well the Feds are not doing it so we have to..." is also invalid.  The reason we have elections is to have the power as a people to vote for officials that represent the views and opinions of the people.  So if you believe your opinion is in the mayority then the elective body should represent that opinion; but if it is not the mayority then you lost.  So the solution to that argument is to vote out the persons currently in power and vote in person who will actually do something about the problem.

Just for my knowledge can you qoute the exact parts of the constitution that forbade a state to enforce laws? All this arizona lawdoes is allow arizona peace offers to turn illegals over to the immigration office. It does not in any way restrict current fedral laws to make it harder to be a citizen.

well, let me see if I can explain it.  States have their own laws.  The Federal Government has its own laws. When a state police officer arrests you and charges you it can only be with a state law.  Same with the Feds, if the FBI arrests you it can only charge you with a violation of a federal law.  That is the nature of a federal government.  Most countries only have a single government for everyone thus only one law.

Now Article I of the Constitution enumerates certain powers for Congress.  Very general in the Constitution but by doing so it lets congress make laws to exercise those powers.  Those laws are only enforceable by the Feds.  Now if congress wants to allow the States to also enforce them it can, but it has to be written into the law itself.  So, Congress could amend the current immigration law and permit states to enforce it.  But as it is written now, only the Attorney general can enforce them, and he does so throught the Department of Homeland Security, which in turns uses the Immigration and Customs enforcement agency. 

That is the way is structured.  That is why the Law was blocked by the judge.  It has nothing to do whether the Feds are efficient at their job or whether Arizona has good intentions.  It is just a matter of technical constitutional issues.  but like I said before, this struggles over power has existed since the declaration of independence.  the United States almost never happened because the founders couldn't agree on the separation of state and federal power.