IMMIGRATION & ARIZONA'S NEW LAW

I was invited by our county's District Attorney, Ed Jagels, to be a guest on the Jaz McKay show (1560 KNZR) this afternoon. The topic was illegal immigration, and the Arizona law which allows/mandates local law enforcement to detain/arrest Mexicans (let's face it, they're not going after illegal Canadians) when police are "reasonably suspicious" that they are here illegally. Ed Jagels was the guest host. As you can imagine, I had a lot of fun. Among the points I made/questions I asked were:

* Jesus didn't speak English and wandered around with no papers.

* What would Jesus do if he was confronted with our immigrant dilemma?

* Does the Equal Protection Clause and the 4th Amendment mean anything anymore? (a tough question for any D.A.

* What does an illegal alien look like?

*  What's the difference between Arizona's "reasonable suspicion" clause and law enforcement's "probable cause"? (our D.A. made it clear that it lowers the bar)

* Because police must rely on communities across the country for information and leads, crime would spike as the illegal community clammed up instead of coming forward with information.

* Legal thugs and criminals would extort and abuse illegals for money, knowing they couldn't go to the police for fear of being deported.

* We need a NAFTA Visa program.

There was more (I was on for an hour), but the point is this: What Arizona did with their illegal immigration  bill is both counterproductive and poorly thought out.

- Mark