Arizona Approves Measure Allowing Local Police to Arrest Suspected Illegal Aliens
The measure also “makes the sale of fentanyl a class 2 felony if the person knowingly sold the drug and another person dies because of the substance.”
Border security was a huge issue on Tuesday night.
Arizona voters approved Proposition 314, allowing local law enforcement to arrest suspected illegal aliens.
It won by a large margin, 62.6% to 37.2%:
Proposition 314 makes it a state crime for people to illegally enter Arizona from Mexico outside official ports of entry, permitting local and state law enforcement officers to arrest them and state judges to order their deportations. Those who enforce the law would be shielded from civil lawsuits.
The proposal won’t go into effect immediately, requiring a similar law in Texas or another state to be in effect for 60 consecutive days before a violator can be prosecuted.
Republican lawmakers in Arizona argued the proposal would help secure the border after the Biden administration dealt with an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration.
The measure makes it a felony “to submit false information or documents for employment or public benefits.”
Plus, it “makes the sale of fentanyl a class 2 felony if the person knowingly sold the drug and another person dies because of the substance.”
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I voted NO. This is a clear violation of federalism and the constitution.
You’re going to have to provide a LOT more analysis to support that statement, particularly since Federalism rightly discerned is based on state sovereignty.
How do you figure? Does a state give up its right to defend its foreign borders when it joins the union?
I can understand preventing them from disallowing *legal* immigrants it disfavors, but what possible constitutional reason would there be to prevent them from their rights to self-defense?
The Supremacy Clause generally gives the federal government the right to overrule state law in some matters. Immigration/citizenship is an express power of the federal government. Through statute, Congress limited the power of the states to enforce federal immigration laws.
The part of about entering only through ports of entry may pass statutory muster, but the ability to arrest suspicion of status or to deport as a violation probably do not (based on readings of case law). None of these are unconstitutional (even if unenforceable under statute).
The underlying statute would be a helpful item to look at. The new Congress and President Trump should review in what circumstances states can enforce federal immigration law, and make changes to this provision. States have a legitimate right here to protect themselves, especially when the federal government will not. Doing this by statute will make this much harder for a subsequent administration to take a different view as it would require legislative action and not just executive action.
Yeah, that tracks with my sense of it – you can’t make up a state law that says, “all immigrants over 6′ 2″ may be deported”, but you could make a state law that says, “state officers may enforce federal immigration laws per federal statute”, which should allow them to forcibly deport illegal immigrants not being handled by la migra. The only question might be, if federal statute has certain process provisions, if they must be adhered to directly (like, “all illegal immigrants may contact outside counsel”, or something similar). I don’t know enough about federal immigration statutes to do an off the cuff analysis, but here’s a thought – make the process the punishment. If we can terrorize innocent self-guided tourists of the capitol, we can certainly make life hard for illegal immigrants, encouraging them to self deport 🙂
Hoorah! Make State Sovereignty Great Again!
(Can that get made into an acronym pronounced like “meshuga”?)
I find it interesting that California can stop cars at its borders and check them for fruits, vegetables, and animals, seizing such without a specifically directed court order, but Arizona can’t control its borders for illegal humans.
https://vistacriminallaw.com/california-prohibited-items/
Sad they even had to do it.
It should have been done without even asking.
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