Upon signing Arizona's new statute requiring police officers to demand citizenship papers from anyone they believe is in the country illegally, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer last week claimed the bill is not designed to "tolerate racial discrimination or racial profiling" of Latinos.
Responding to critics who say the legislation does just that, she, like many conservatives, insisted, "I don't know what an illegal immigrant looks like" -- the implication being that Republicans are colorblind.
It sounds reassuring, but methinks she doth protest too much, and I say that because one of the Republican Party's leading law enforcement voices has already disclosed the true objective of precisely this kind of legislation.
That seminal admission came in November 2001, when the emotional aftermath of 9/11 momentarily removed politicians' rhetorical filters. There on the floor of Congress, GOP Rep. Scott McInnis delivered an address about "the need for profiling for the national security of this country."
Brandishing his past experience as a police officer, he implored lawmakers "to quit being politically correct" and let authorities make "ethnic background a legitimate component" of law enforcement investigations -- just as Arizona's new statute allows.
"Insurance companies profile for risk. That is what I am asking that we continue to do -- we need to profile for risk," he thundered, adding that using ethnicity as a risk factor "is very legitimate -- I think it is smart."
In other words, we should do to civil rights what insurance firms have done to, say, health care -- namely, deny people rights and privileges based on their ascribed characteristics.
Had McInnis' career been buried in the political graveyard, Republican apologists could easily pretend his kind of bigotry is irrelevant to today's fears that the Arizona law will both encourage prejudice and appear in other states. But McInnis is now the Republican gubernatorial frontrunner in Colorado, and this week he became the first major GOP candidate in America to pledge to replicate Arizona's statute in his state if elected in 2010.
Considering the candidate's pedigree as a former state House Majority Leader and six-term congressman, and considering his views on what a law like Arizona's is really all about, McInnis' promise is not an inconsequential outburst from some nobody, nor is it likely to be just an isolated campaign plank in an unimportant backwater. On the contrary, this is a far-reaching signal from the national Republican Party establishment, for it comes from that establishment's hand-picked poster boy in a state that GOP guru Karl Rove said will be "ground zero" in the upcoming elections.
For his part, Rove acknowledges that the Arizona law aims to let police use racial and ethnic cues to profile individuals -- exactly the way McInnis envisions.
"(Police) are going to (target suspects) on the basis of reasonable suspicion that these people are here illegally," he said, "like they're driving a car with a Mexican license plate or they can't speak English" -- in short, cultural metrics that even anti-immigration activist Tom Tancredo has said could unduly result in people getting "pulled over because you look like you should be pulled over."
Such extra-constitutional atrocities, of course, don't bother the ideologically conservative Rove -- instead, the reason Rove says "I wished (Arizona) hadn't passed" the bill is because it could devastate Republicans at the polls.
First and foremost a partisan animal, Rove understands that the more Republican standard-bearers like McInnis opine about Arizona's statute, and the more voters learn about those standard-bearers' past statements, the more voters will see that the GOP is dishonestly masking institutionalized bigotry in seemingly laudable odes to racial neutrality. That revelation may invigorate the small racist vote, but Rove knows that the truth could also repulse the Silent Majority -- and perhaps sink his party for good.
David Sirota is the author of the best-selling books "Hostile Takeover" and "The Uprising." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com or follow him on Twitter @davidsirota. This is his latest column for Creators Syndicate.
Follow David Sirota on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidsirota
To the Editor:
I am sick and tired of being called a racist. America looks at me and sees a middle-class white man who wants something done about illegal immigration and assumes that it must be about race.
What I am actually concerned about is the socioeconomic effects of the high-density immigration. I am concerned with the complete disregard to the concept of assimilation and the complete lack of respect being shown toward what my friends and family have fought and died to protect.
Laws are fair only if all people, despite race, color or creed, are held to them. The fact that the majority of the people who are in our country illegally are of color means nothing to me.
This is not a race issue. It is a legal issue, a financial issue, a respect issue and an issue of pride. Please look beyond my white skin, stop assuming that I’m racist, and see that this is an issue about immigration, not race.
James Stewart
Mount Vernon, Wash., May 22, 2010
The Oath of Citizenship:
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.[1]
How illegal immigration will destroy the US as you know it in ~ 40 years or so.
This Lecture was done in 1999. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM1YU-Ni_84
Looking at the chart when he gets there,
What they estimated in 1999 for 2010 is spot on what actually happened.
[Estimated in 1999 it would be just over 300 million in 2010.]
When he gets to the gumball demonstration keep in mind the large jar represents the people in the world that are WORSE OFF than Mexicans.
Because of illegal immigration from 1999 to present we've had to:
Build TWICE as many schools.
Build TWICE as many roads.
Build TWICE as many sewer plants.
Build TWICE as many power plants.
Build TWICE as much about anything else.
Had to add twice as many cops and firemen and teachers. [Or leave areas under serviced.]
And use TWICE as many trees and other natural resources.
Anyone that thinks illegal immigration isn't a significant load on our economy and natural resources is a moron.
If you don't want every city in the US to become a giant LA Slum within our or our children's lifetimes then it has to STOP NOW!
~
Link to just the chart. [Sorry about the quality.]
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/files/imagecache/fpage/files/cck_images/population.jpg...
Also in a recent speech she said: ".... the border is secure as it has ever been"
"as it has ever been" = NOT
The Democrats want to push through Amnesty because they are losing voters right and left and they see these 'new citizens' as votes. I expect them to be disappointed in that as the immigrants will associate Democrats with Obama who is losing favor with them.
I think its much more likely both the Democratic AND Republican Parties will fragment and we will end up with 3 or 4 [or more] parties that are viable competitors to each other in elections.
.
The Bill as passed went through the State Legislature which consists of both Parties and as such the Bill was drafted BY THE PEOPLE.
That's how it works here in the United States..
You'll be suprised how many working class folks will now "look illegal".
EXTENT PERMITTED BY FEDERAL LAW.
20 B. FOR ANY LAWFUL CONTACT MADE BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY
21 OF THIS STATE OR A COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS
22 STATE WHERE REASONABLE SUSPICION EXISTS THAT THE PERSON IS AN ALIEN WHO IS
23 UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES, A REASONABLE ATTEMPT SHALL BE MADE,
24 WHEN PRACTICABLE, TO DETERMINE THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF THE PERSON.
They are 'profiling' our Police in AZ as unscrupulous Racists.
Especially ridiculous as our Police here have a higher % of Hispanics than the general population does. Specific to Phoenix there are more Hispanics on the Police force than there are Anglos.
Hispanics Racial against Hispanics. - Yeah, RIGHT!
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You MUST assume our Police are corrupt for any of the Racist argument to work.
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An unlike the assumed future Profiling by Police, the Profiling of our Police has ALREADY OCCURRED.
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Roughly 1 MILLION people cross over the AZ border illegally per year.
153 different Nationalities have been identified.
Yes, many just come to work but we DON'T KNOW know everyone that has entered our country illegally or for what reason they came.
We are WIDE OPEN to another 9-11.
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Incidentally 'Profile' is the wrong word.
Anyone that makes their living by writing should know that.
'Target' would be the correct word..
#1 - Human nature.
#2 - Illegal in Law and Government.
~~~
Incidentally 'profile' is the wrong word.
In one way or another everyone 'profiles' EVERYONE they meet.
The correct word would be 'target' or something similar..
They would ALREADY be doing it.
There is NOTHING in it that allows Police to bypass Probable Cause. -
Nada, zero, zip..
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf
Based on polls, it is obvious that when other minority groups, including a limited number of hispanics, show support for this approach to the problem, it is not a racial issue, but an economic and legal problem.
If Mr. Sirota would like to read the AZ law so he can quote it accurately, I will be happy to send him one.
I've listened to McInnis' speech on the floor several times, and I read the text. I am as ashamed of him now as I was then.
And exactly WHAT polls would lead you to believe the voters of Colorado would pass this hideous legislation?
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/apr/28/arizona-immigration-law-fact-checked/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/apr/28/john-huppenthal/arizona-immigration-law-requires-police-see-crime-/