Forums: Illegal Immigration To The United States

A Phoenix-based youth pastor is worried that his ministry could face legal troubles under Arizona’s new immigration law. “We don’t ask people for their documents to come hear about Jesus,” said Ian Danley, youth pastor at Neighborhood Ministries, during a conference call with immigration reform advocates Wednesday afternoon. The evangelical pastor said regular ministry work, such as driving teens to worship events, could be “criminalized” under the new Arizona law if a church worker knowingly transports youths who are illegally residing in the United States. “The local community here feels under attack,” Danley said. “Recent high school graduates in my...

On the heels of yesterday’s ruling, Sharron Angle has put out this single-paragraph press release: It’s bad enough the Federal Government won’t secure our borders, but today’s ruling is an absolute outrage. Harry Reid and the Democrats in Washington have failed to secure America’s borders, refused to enforce federal laws, and neglected to address one of the most serious problems facing our country. This is an unacceptable failure of our federal government and the people of Nevada deserve better than a so-called leader in the Senate who won’t even acknowledge that illegal immigration is a problem here at home. Instead...

The Federalist No. 45 James Madison Alleged Danger From the Powers of the Union to the State Governments Considered Independent Journal Saturday, January 26, 1788 The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary...

Attorney General Eric Holder could have dictated most of Judge Susan Bolton’s decision blocking key parts of the Arizona immigration law. The judge twists facts and logic to support the Justice Department’s claim that the state law preempts the federal immigration scheme. To do so, she accepts Justice’s implicit argument that it’s not the letter of the federal law that matters, but what parts of the law the executive decides to enforce. If her reasoning stands, we will basically cut Congress out of immigration policy and the states out of enforcement. Instead, our immigration system will entirely depend on executive...

Diego Gutierrez, a 25-year-old man Mexican man, illegally crossed the border into Arizona sometime around last Friday. Gutierrez was handsome and well built, with big eyes and a head of thick, black hair. In a photo taken by a Pima County medical examiner, he appeared to have a Roman nose. After trudging through the desert on days when temperatures at a nearby airfield reached 106 degrees, Gutierrez began to complain of stomach cramps. He vomited. Gutierrez’s father, who had crossed the border with him, left his son and flagged down a Border Patrol officer. The officer later reported that he...

Judge Rips Guts Out of AZ Law: It's No Longer Illegal to be IllegalJuly 28, 2010 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The judge has handed down the ruling in the Arizona immigration case. She has granted an injunction blocking parts of the Arizona law. They're going to be some people that are surprised. I don't know what specific parts of the law have been blocked, but we will find out, and we will have the details for you when we come back, maybe before we go to the break, but a judge has granted an injunction blocking parts of the Arizona law....

Gaea Rich and her family were in full holiday mode aboard their yacht on the Fourth of July as they motored from Stamford, Conn., across Long Island Sound and into Oyster Bay, off the North Shore of Long Island. The trip, with more than 15 relatives and friends, was supposed to be the high point of a weekend family reunion. But a few hours into the cruise, after what began as an apparently routine stop by a marine patrol of local and federal law enforcement officials, two passengers — a Guatemalan caterer hired for the day and Ms. Rich’s boyfriend,...

Well whaddya know? It turns out that Rhode Island has long been carrying out the procedures at issue in the Arizona immigration statute: As a matter of routine, RI state police check immigration status at traffic stops whenever there is reasonable suspicion to do so, and they report all illegals to the feds for deportation. Besides the usual profiling blather, critics have trotted out the now familiar saw that such procedures hamstring police because they make immigrants afraid to cooperate. But it turns out that it’s the Rhode Island police who insist on enforcing the law. As Cornell law prof...

One broader lesson people need to take away from the legal wrangling over the Arizona law: Any enforcement provisions of "comprehensive immigration reform" that Congress might pass would be tied up in the courts for years. As my colleague Steve Camarota wrote recently: Any employer verification system will be challenged in court. So will any efforts to coordinate immigration enforcement with local police. Immigration lawyers also will fight every effort to detain more of their clients. Building new fencing and dealing with environmental and property rights issues at the border will involve legal battles. While in time these things almost...

A few days ago Michelle Malkin received an email from an outraged Service Employees International Union (SEIU) member in Los Angeles who was mad that his dues money was going to pay for a pro-illegal alien bus tour planned by union leaders. The tour was supposed to start in L.A. and end up in Phoenix, Arizona and was meant to highlight the supposed evils of Arizona's SB1070, the anti-illegal immigrant law that has been so much in the news. The union member that contacted Malkin was apparently "furious" over the union's plans. I am furious over this and wrote an...