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To Every Person Who Ever Told Me To “Read the Bill”

Posted July 28, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

Whenever I would speak or write about SB 1070, someone would demand to know whether I had “read the bill.” They were always disappointed to learn that I had read the bill and its amendments twice in the first week after passage, and “taught the bill” to my class at Hofstra Law School. When I asked them if they had read the bill, they always looked sheepish. I guess you can support a racist bill in total ignorance of what it says.

A few of the things that our regular readers have seen in the comments on Long Island Wins from SB 1070 supporters deserve a reply:

1. SB 1070 Mirrors Federal Law: No. No. No. It doesn’t. The judge says it doesn’t. It creates an immigration law and an immigration policy for the State of Arizona that is at odds with the Federal immigration laws. If Arizona can make its own anti-immigrant law, why can’t New York pass a law giving citizenship to undocumented immigrants?

2. SB 1070 Only Goes After “Illegal Aliens:” No. The judge says that under the law, anybody stopped by the cops will have to be detained until their immigration status can be determined. This will take an average of an hour and a half, even if the cops think the person is in the U.S. legally. Also, SB 1070 creates criminal penalties for tourists from countries that we don’t require a visa for, like Canadians, who will be in the U.S. legally, but with no documentation to prove legal status.

3. SB 1070 Was Carefully Drafted: Baloney. It was so poorly drafted that it had to be amended a week after it was signed, and even then it was “inartfully worded” according to the lawyer who argued Arizona’s case. That “inartfulness” got much of the law enjoined.

4. SB 1070 Was “Bulletproof:” Pride goeth before a fall. Kris Kobach, the lawyer who wrote SB 1070, was being paid 300 bucks an hour by Joe Arpaio as an immigration law consultant. He has been making the rounds claiming to be an expert on the interplay of the Constitution and immigration laws. SB 1070 was found likely to be unconstitutional today and another law he wrote against immigrants was suspended in Fremont, Nebraska, last night. Kobach is great at running up heavy legal fees, but his laws only appeal to the ignorant and bigoted.

Tags : kobach, sb 1070

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