Arizona's Immigration Law to Idaho

It figures that since the Federal Government has largely ignored the restrictions that the Constitution places on them for the last 100 years or so, that they would also forget to actually do one of the few things that they are Constitutionally mandated to do, which is protect and secure our borders. As a result, Arizona has become one of the first of many states to pass a heavy handed law that puts the civil rights of every American in jeopardy.

First, any Hispanic (yes, this bill will cause profiling) is certainly going to be guilty of being an illegal alien until proven otherwise. So much for innocent until proven guilty. While most people believe that it's required of you to produce ID to a peace officer, you don't have to carry an ID unless you're performing an action which requires a license (driving), albeit several states have stop and identify statutes on their books. Still, a cop has to have probable cause to ask you to produce an ID. Now, a chalk-white soccer mom is certainly NOT going to be suspected of being an illegal alien, even if she is speeding, running a red light, or "acting suspicious". However, my wife is Hispanic, and if such a law were in Idaho, a cop would be perfectly within his rights to detain her until she could prove citizenship. Think it won't happen? My mother-in-law, who was born here, was detained returning from a trip to Mexico under suspicion of being undocumented because she misplaced her passport. No amount of showing her ID, or a host of other identifiers prevented her delay in returning to her home country.

Second, Arizona's law allows any state licensing bureau to hand over their databases (Arizonan's hunting licenses, driver's licenses and concealed weapons permits) to the DHC (the Feds) at any time, for any reason. Which effectively creates a national ID database for the Federal Government. As a gun owner and avid hunter, I would be concerned about these types of provisions in a bill in Idaho. Do we really want the Federal Government tracking our gun purchases and what we do with our firearms? How much easier would it be for gun control activists, especially when they are in the White House, to target certain demographics with gun regulations? That was a rhetorical question. Frankly, it's none of the government's damn business - at any level, let alone federal - whether we own guns or not.

Does Idaho face an illegal immigration problem? Sure. Do we need a similar law to Arizona's to combat the problem? No. Are there pro-liberty solutions to this issue that legislators haven't considered? Yes! I will cover some of those in my next post.

A Libertarian in a Room Full of Public School Teachers

Yeah.


Needless to say, I had far more to worry about before the start of the event than just the fact that this was my first ever public speaking engagement. Before the event, I took the time to introduce myself for the first time to my myriad opponents in this race (including the incumbent, Carlos Bilbao) collected my thoughts, laid out my business cards, and mingled with the early birds. Fortunately, I settled right in as soon as the forum began.

The forum was put on by the Democracy Circle of Emmett, Idaho. I was impressed by the turnout for this event. I'd put the total number of attendees at around 50. They gave me around a dozen or so sample questions ahead of time, of which they asked 5. They gave me 1 minute to answer each of the 5 questions. Trust me, 1 minute is a short amount of time to answer multi-faceted questions. I also took several questions from the crowd at the tail end of the evening. It seemed the crowd was obviously concerned about Idaho's recent budget cuts in education. I think the answers I provided (in the 45 second time limit) were effective in showcasing my ideas that taxpayer funding is rarely (if ever) the best solution to a problem.

Keeping in mind that the room was chalk full of public employees, I was pleasantly surprised by a few nodding heads in the crowd as I advocated phasing out public schools in favor of privately owned institutions and parental choice. The stack of business cards I laid out only had a handful left after the event was over. Also, while I didn't canvas the room and shake every one's hand like your typical politician, I was pleased to have several individuals approach me and shake my hand after it was over.

It's apparent to me that people are ready to listen when you are talking about individual liberty. The people at the event were super friendly and I thoroughly enjoyed my first real foray into meeting and communicating with potential voters. I can't wait for the next event.

Illegal Immigration

Government has created the illegal immigration problem in America by creating unneeded barriers to citizenship and providing taxpayer funded entitlement programs and benefits to illegal immigrants. Now recent legislation in Arizona sees government once again trying to resolve problems created by government. Rounding up all the illegals and sending them home is a waste of taxpayer money, and will simply create another "War on ______" of the same ilk as the failed wars on drugs, poverty, and terror. Pouring tax dollars into border fences and incarceration of illegals aren't valid answers, either. People can cut through, dig under, or climb over fences. Laws are already on the books that include jail time and monetary fines for illegal entry into our borders, and they haven't stemmed the tide to this point. Are more laws really going to do any good at all?

Instead of attacking the symptoms we should attack the root of the disease. We should remove incentives to illegal immigration by making taxpayer funded entitlements unavailable to illegals. Illegals should not be entitled to taxpayer assistance, period. We should provide simultaneous incentives for legal immigration by reducing barriers to entry and re-starting programs similar to the Bracero Program. America should welcome immigrants. After all, we ALL are at least descendants of immigrants. However, American citizens should not be on the hook for financing the migration of individuals accross our borders.