One of the arguments raised against the Arizona immigration law (in addition to it being the modern incarnation of Nazism) was that states had no authority under the U.S. Constitution to conduct their own immigration policies.
So I presume we will hear howls of constitutional outrage against New York Governor David Paterson, who has announced that New York will actively seek to subvert the federal immigration laws by creating special pardon panels to expunge criminal records for legal aliens to help them avoid deportation proceedings.
As reported by The NY Times:
In a major rebuke of federal immigration policy, Gov. David A. Paterson announced on Monday that he would create a special pardon panel to review cases involving legal immigrants who are at risk of deportation for minor or old convictions.
Mr. Paterson’s move will give many immigrants facing deportation renewed hope and places the governor into the middle of the country’s immigration debate.
The announcement comes as the federal government has taken an increasingly hard line in its interpretation of existing immigration law, leaving a growing number of legal immigrants who have criminal records facing deportation.
“Some of our immigration laws, particularly with respect to deportation, are embarrassingly and wrongly inflexible,” Mr. Paterson said in a speech on Monday at an annual gathering of the state’s top judges.
The difference between New York and Arizona on immigration is that New York actively subverts federal law, while Arizona adheres to federal law; New York is conducting its own immigration policy while Arizona is not.
Yet Arizona government officials are called lawless Nazis and racists, while Paterson gets a pass.
Which proves, once again, that the accusations of Nazism and racism were cover to make enforcement of the immigration laws more difficult.
Update: One of the commenters seeks to justify Paterson’s actions on the ground that the federal laws are unjust. But you can’t have it both ways, claiming that states cannot conduct their own immigration policy when you don’t like the result, but can when you like the result. Because if that is the standard, then the Arizona law should be fine because it is supported by 60% of the U.S. population versus 36% who oppose it.
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