Think twice if you're in Arizona and decide you want to call the cops on the loud party down the street at midnight. The language in the new Arizona Gestapo racial profiling immigration law now on the books allows police to use city ordinance violations as a reason to request documents from residents while in their homes.
Via Wonkroom:
As part of the amended bill, a police officer responding to city ordinance violations would also be required to determine the immigration status of an individual they have reasonable suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant.
The email Kris Kobach sent to Russell Pearce is truly hair-raising. You can read all of it here. An excerpt:
...we need to add "or any county or municipal ordinance." This will allow police to use violations of property code (ie, cars on blocks in the yard) or rental codes (too many occupants of a rental accommodation) to initiate queries as well.
Evidently Mr. Kris Kobach thinks cars on blocks and overcrowded rental units are the exclusive province of undocumented workers. Because nothing screams "SEARCH ME" like a few cars on blocks in the front yard, right?
Here's an excerpt from Kobach's 2005 paper entitled "The Quintessential Force Multiplier" (PDF):
The assistance of state and local law enforcement agencies can also mean the difference between success and failure in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws generally. The nearly 800,000 police officers nationwide represent a massive force multiplier.9 This assistance need only be occasional, passive, voluntary, and pursued during the course of normal law enforcement activity. The net that is cast daily by local law enforcement during routine encounters with members of the public is so immense that it is inevitable illegal aliens will be identified.
Kobach makes an argument for the empowerment of local law enforcement as de facto assistants for rooting out and deporting illegal immigrants. In his examples, he cites "violent gang members", "9/11 suspects", "Muslim extremists" and more. The most striking feature of his argument is the complete absence of any argument for white-collar criminals like Jack Abramoff or Tom Delay or the shadow governors who fund smear campaigns against the left. They've done more harm to this country and our government than any illegal immigrant has.
Of course, Kobach has an interesting past, one certainly worth looking at a bit closer. He was a former aide to John Ashcroft, has ties back to the John Tanton white supremacy dynasty, is a voter suppression caging braggart, and author of a book entitled "Political Capital: The Motives, Tactics, and Goals of Politicized Businesses in South Africa". Interesting title, that.
A wide net indeed, cast by a man who aspires to be the next Kansas Secretary of State, where, if elected, he will set about suppressing any vote in Kansas not cast by someone who sunburns easily.
