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.