Arizona law is hated because it could be effective

[Jeanfromfillmore]

ARIZONA LAW IS HATED BECAUSE IT COULD BE EFFECTIVE
To understand the hysterical reaction to Arizona's new immigration initiative, consider the numbers, says Heather Mac Donald, a contributing editor at City Journal and a co-author of "The Immigration Solution."
For example:
• There are 6,000 federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tasked with restoring the rule of law in a country that already contains between 12 and 20 million immigration law-breakers.
• Any intending illegal immigrant knows that if he can get across the border undetected, he faces a minute risk of being apprehended on U.S. soil.
• By comparison, the New York Police Department, with a current headcount of 35,000, feels itself greatly understaffed in a compact city of eight million residents, only a portion of whom are law-breakers.
The Arizona law, were it to be widely emulated, threatens to disrupt the calculus of illegal immigration, says Mac Donald. There are 650,000 state and local police officers in the United States. If a significant portion of those officers received the mandate of the Arizona law -- to inquire where practicable into the immigration status of an individual they have legitimately stopped, if they have a valid reason to believe he is in the country illegally -- the balance between law enforcement and law-breaking would be changed enough to likely deter illegal border crossings and to persuade many illegal immigrants already in the United States to return to their home countries rather than face arrest and deportation.
The opponents of Arizona's law -- SB 1070 -- detest it not because it will lead to racial profiling (it will not), nor because it is unconstitutional (it is not), but because it just might work, says Mac Donald. Texas is reportedly already considering a similar law. The illegal immigrant lobby knows that it has to stop SB 1070 if it wants to maintain its monopoly over border matters, a monopoly that has led to the chaos that is now engulfing Arizona.
Source: Heather Mac Donald, "Arizona law is hated because it could be effective," Washington Examiner, May 5, 2010.
For text:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op...#ixzz0ncgqpAa1
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=19320

[Twoller]

Originally Posted by Jeanfromfillmore

....

The Arizona law, were it to be widely emulated, threatens to disrupt the calculus of illegal immigration, says Mac Donald. There are 650,000 state and local police officers in the United States. If a significant portion of those officers received the mandate of the Arizona law -- to inquire where practicable into the immigration status of an individual they have legitimately stopped, if they have a valid reason to believe he is in the country illegally -- the balance between law enforcement and law-breaking would be changed enough to likely deter illegal border crossings and to persuade many illegal immigrants already in the United States to return to their home countries rather than face arrest and deportation.

....

"... to persuade many illegal immigrants already in the United States to return to their home countries rather than face arrest and deportation."

No! Again, it is posed acceptable that illegal immigrants have or should have the facility to illegally cross the US border. Illegal immigrants in this country absolutely must not be allowed to just go if they feel like it. Illegals leaving the country whenever they feel like it is exactly the same problem as them coming whenever they feel like it.

And you know, this might be a leverage point in any discussions of amnesty, that we will not prosecute illegals for being here as long as they are leaving. Legally, they have no way to leave since they have no way to cross the border legally. They are stuck.

Any discussion of securing borders must include traffic leaving the US as well as entering and so really amnesty for those illegals who wish to leave the country -- never to return -- should be granted. The rest need to be hunted down and thrown out. Maybe another kind of amnesty might be granted to those who volunteer not to contest their deportation when they are caught. They would be deported -- never to return -- without prosecution for being in the country illegally.

So, if the illegals want amnesty, here is a way they can get it. They can volunteer to leave, turn themselves in to the ICE, who would give them the paperwork to cross out of the US border. Or, when they are caught being in the country illegally, they can volunteer to not contest the deportation (Nolo contendre?) and be shipped out.

The second part might be uneccessary, once they are caught as an illegal, maybe there isn't that much more to it, but it might be the opportunity to enfranchise the amnesty movement and further confound amnesty advocates. Amnesty should only be a tool for removing illegals, not allowing them to stay.

[usa today]

The part that has them scared is that if they are discovered in Arizona , its not a free trip to the border

They will get to spend jail time before they get deported.