House of Eratosthenes

I caught wind of yet another sensible plan being put in place by that Arizona headline-grabber, Sheriff Joe Arpaio. This time, the issue is illegal immigration. His office is being forced to use its resources to round up illegal immigrants who are creating heavy traffic through very critical spots in Arizona’s border. So he’s setting up a good, ol’fashioned posse.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department will draw from existing deputies and members of its 3,000-member posse reserve � made up of trained, unpaid volunteers � to form the illegal-immigration posse.

The 100-member illegal-immigration posse will join 57 other specialized department posses that target specific crimes, including animal cruelty and prostitution.

The effort is an attempt to slow the tide of illegal immigrants into the county, Arizona’s most populous, said Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“It’s important to send the message out to stay in Mexico and don’t come roaming around here hoping you’re going to get amnesty,” Arpaio said. “They ought to stay cool, stay in Mexico and wait until this illegal-immigration problem is solved. If they don’t do that and they come to Maricopa County, they’re going straight to jail.”

The Sheriff’s Department began arresting illegal immigrants in March under a state smuggling law that went into effect in August. Under the law � as interpreted by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas � illegal immigrants can be arrested and prosecuted for conspiracy to smuggle themselves into the country.

The law’s authors have said they intended it to be used to prosecute smugglers, not the immigrants being smuggled. It’s been used against smugglers in at least one other Arizona county.

“I support the concept, but I also support the rule of law,” said Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, who co-wrote the smuggling law. “So this kind of left me with mixed feelings at the end of the day because (the law) is something we thought we had pretty tightly worded, and they’re using it for something we didn’t intend.”

Okay, now this is pretty interesting. I’m a big fan of “original intent” when laws are interpreted by courts and law enforcement agencies. But there’s also an intriguing question inspired by this: How can it be illegal to hop over a fence, and then when you get arrested for hopping over it, said arrest goes against the original intent of the law? I mean — once again — for cryin’ out loud, is it illegal or isn’t it?

Well, it turns out the law being mentioned is quite the hot-button issue in Arizona. It is the “illegal-entrant” law, and it took effect in August 2005. Two of the lingering questions involved are 1) Is it constitutional for Arizona to take up the responsibility of securing the border, which is rightfully a federal issue; and 2) Can you arrest the illegal aliens themselves, when you enforce an anti-smuggling law?

A lot of this was covered in an article that appeared in AZCentral some six months ago:

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard declined Friday to say whether he agreed with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ opinion that undocumented immigrants suspected of using smugglers to bring them into the country can be arrested and charged under a new state law against human smuggling.

Goddard said his office does not have authority to issue its own opinion on the reach of the new law unless it receives a formal request from a client, typically a state agency or elected official, and that he has received no such request. The new law, which the Legislature approved last spring, took effect in August.

“I think it’s a very tricky problem,” Goddard said Friday when asked about the opinion Thomas issued this week. “The state law may have some additional elements, Thomas seems to conclude, that we didn’t have when the citizen arrests took place.”

Googling further, I came across this recent article with a highly suspicious headline: “Police oppose illegal-entrant law”. Now, I’ll tell you why this kind of thing stinks to high heaven, at least in my world. I’ve noticed this for a long time. Police do not oppose the idea of arresting people for doing illegal things, any more than firemen oppose the idea of putting out fires. Talking to real cops, as people, my experience has been that when they have political leanings, the leanings have something to do with making their jobs easier.

Nobody has a track record of pretending to be cops, except for cop-unions. My nostrils filled with the acrid stench of union thuggery, but what do I know? So far, it’s just my own personal prejudices, nothing else. I needed to learn more, so I was inclined to read on:

The Legislature’s plan to criminalize the presence of illegal immigrants in the state is promoted as a way to lessen Arizona’s vast border problems, but it also is drawing opposition from many of the local police agencies that would enforce such a rule.

Opponents say the plan, now being considered by Gov. Janet Napolitano, is an unconstitutional attempt for the state to regulate federal immigration law and would lead to fewer immigrants’ cooperating in criminal investigations for fear of being sent back home. [emphasis mine]

Okay, so far everything seems to be on the up-and-up. I’m a little bit concerned about the “plan now being considered by Gov. Janet Napolitano” — this is an article that appeared just three weeks ago. Was the law not already signed some eight months earlier?

But that really isn’t the issue. I want to know about these police officers. Are they afraid of the resources being tapped out? So let’s go further…

Police officials also criticized the enforcement plan for not providing extra money to arrest the tens of thousands of people who sneak into Arizona, the country’s busiest illegal-entry point. A separate plan moving through the Legislature would provide communities with $30 million for immigration efforts.

Ah hah. So it is a resources issue, after all. That seems very reasonable…with the exception that, hey, enforcing the law is what police are all about. State law, federal law, it really doesn’t matter in the big picture. Something is illegal, it’s illegal. Illegal alien breaks a federal law, gets in here, and because he’s illegal you don’t know who he is or what his background is — that’s what illegal means. So it wouldn’t be too surprising when you have some carjacking, maybe a rape or two…I don’t think those are legal in the state of Arizona. So it’s not terribly likely a cop would say “if it’s illegal, but it doesn’t break any of my laws, I don’t want to know about it.”

I read further…

“Thirty-million dollars is a drop in the bucket,” said Eric Edwards, executive director of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, which opposes the plan.

Sonofabitch! There you go. Another damned union passing themselves off as “The Police.”

I’ve written about this before, although I can’t remember when. This is a thoroughly reprehensible practice we shouldn’t be tolerating. We’re supposed to read in the paper that “police oppose” some common-sense law enforcement rule, which one would normally expect would make their jobs easier; then, we’re supposed to take to the streets, and use the poweer of the grapevine to tell each other “well, I’m not sure what the logic is, but it turns out if you’re a policeman this isn’t a good idea…I was reading this morning that ‘the police’ oppose the new law…”

When, actually, it’s “the police” that oppose the whatever-it-is, if and only if the union takes a poll from its membership about the issue. Which unions NEVER do, of course. ASSHOLES. But it gets much better.

Republican Sen. Barbara Leff of Paradise Valley, who proposed the bill, said her plan is a second layer of enforcement to catch immigrants who slip past federal border agents.

Leff said the proposal is primarily a means to detain illegal immigrants until federal authorities can pick them up. Police agencies say they don’t have the legal authority to detain illegal immigrants, unless they have violated state law.

Local police who come across illegal immigrants have to release them when federal immigration agents fail to pick them up, according to Leff. “We hear these stories every day,” she said.

Waitaminnit, now! Rep. Paton said he thought he got the law all pretty tightly worded, and this was not his intent. Did he talk to Rep. Barbara Leff about intent? Didn’t they hash this out when they were wording things, you know, pretty tightly?

This whole thing has the stink of a simple issue being made deliberately complicated so that the right thing has a decent chance of not getting done. We live in a republic of interdependent but sovereign states. That does not mean when a state law enforcement guy catches you breaking a federal law, he’s duty-bound to stand their with his hands in his pockets, chewing on a big ol’ wad of gum, watching you, muttering “dadburn it, I wish I had the authority to do something.”

When’s the last time a state patrol guy pulled you over for speeding, and said “unfortunately, you’re within city limits, so I’ll have to let you go”? What are these opponents trying to get happening, anyway? The smuggler gets booked on a felony, while the illegal aliens who hired him, just mosey along to the nearest town to get their fake drivers’ licenses? Maybe pick up a half-gallon of cold water on the way? Some complimentary nudie magazines and chewing tobacco? So that “The Constitution” can be upheld…some magical text in the U.S. Constitution, that these advocates can’t even point out to me if I ask them to? While laws are broken, repeatedly and blatantly, and cops have been muscled into looking the other way? What’s that got to do with law and order, Mister Police Chief’s Association guy?

That the state legislature has to even move a muscle, before the state cop can do anything about what is patently illegal, is ridiculous. That lawsuits and union huffery-puffery should ensue, once the legislature has invested the authority, is reprehensible. That spineless politicians should say that investing the authority was not their original intent, when said investment was the whole object of the exercise in the first place, is a joke. And, that a union should go masquerading as “The Cops,” once again, is just yet another insult.

Some of this is just the way politics work. Some of the rest of it, is a bunch of nonsense that people can make a conscious decision to tolerate…or not. And I hope they don’t.

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Union ShenanigansFriday, May 5th, 2006

Union Shenanigans
Friday, May 5th, 2006