Anti-Arizona hysteria is hype

The hysterical opposition to Arizona’s new immigration law has ridden roughshod over the truth of the law and ignored the obvious motivation behind it: there is a deep frustration with illegal immigration and the status quo is no longer acceptable in Arizona.

Critics have claimed it will lead to a Nazi-like police state with rampant profiling and discriminatory detentions.

Here’s a taste from a Washington Post columnist: “I can’t imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation.”

There have been countless claims that Hispanics will be required to carry and be prepared to present their “papers” at any time.

Perhaps one of the most uninformed, misleading statements came from President Barack Obama himself: “You can imagine, if you are a Hispanic American in Arizona ... suddenly, if you don’t have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to get harassed.”

None of these over-the-top claims account for the carefully crafted language that is actually in the law, which specifies that police can only question a person regarding their immigration status after a “lawful stop, detention or arrest” and there must be “reasonable suspicion” for doing so. Also presenting “papers” simply means producing a drivers license, something that lawful Americans are asked to do anytime they are stopped by law enforcement.

True enough, there may be problems with the law that may have to be addressed. Arizona is presenting the country with an experiment. It’s clear that a solid majority of Arizonans support the law and according a recent CBS poll, they have the support of most Americans in other states.

There is a growing awareness that the border between the United States and Mexico has become a war zone, rife with violence and drug and human trafficking. And the public is fully aware that the federal government has failed to address the problem.

Arizona state officials fully expect the new law to be challenged in court on grounds that it is somehow unconstitutional. Good luck to the plaintiffs on that, because Arizona’s law was crafted to mirror current federal law and the state has successfully defended three previous measures on immigration that were challenged.

If anything, Arizona lawmakers want to uphold federal law, unlike so-called “sanctuary cities” such as San Francisco that do everything in their power to undermine the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Arizonans have presented the country with an experiment, and hopefully it will curb the problems caused by illegal immigration.