This bill is aimed straight at property owners (stores, etc.) who allow illegal aliens to congregate and “offer their services”. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but here in AZ, it is common to find crowds of illegals around the entrances & exits of home-improvement stores, WalMart, etc. – and they can be very aggressive in trying to get folks to hire them for day labor, etc.
Home Depot aggressively fights this by calling police to remove these “trespassers”, but many places do not.
The situation is dangerous on several levels(these folks are in the street, waving in your face, etc.) not to mention annoying.
I actually do get the desire to make this one double, extra-illegal. The existing laws largely aren’t getting enforced, or at least only intermittently. And part of that is lawsuits or the threat thereof and bureaucratic foot-dragging, not only the normal supply pressures of black markets. Presumably they think a crisp new law will be easier to enforce.
Another reason for the bill is that many police departments in Arizona do not enforce immigration laws because they claim it is strictly a Federal issue. With a state law criminalizing illegal immigration would nullify that excuse for the “catch and release” policy that many departments are operating under right now.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:54 am
This bill is aimed straight at property owners (stores, etc.) who allow illegal aliens to congregate and “offer their services”. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but here in AZ, it is common to find crowds of illegals around the entrances & exits of home-improvement stores, WalMart, etc. – and they can be very aggressive in trying to get folks to hire them for day labor, etc.
Home Depot aggressively fights this by calling police to remove these “trespassers”, but many places do not.
The situation is dangerous on several levels(these folks are in the street, waving in your face, etc.) not to mention annoying.
March 4th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I actually do get the desire to make this one double, extra-illegal. The existing laws largely aren’t getting enforced, or at least only intermittently. And part of that is lawsuits or the threat thereof and bureaucratic foot-dragging, not only the normal supply pressures of black markets. Presumably they think a crisp new law will be easier to enforce.
March 4th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Another reason for the bill is that many police departments in Arizona do not enforce immigration laws because they claim it is strictly a Federal issue. With a state law criminalizing illegal immigration would nullify that excuse for the “catch and release” policy that many departments are operating under right now.
March 4th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
When do they get a bill making illegal, illegal aliens illegal? But then that wouldn’t cover any of the illegal, illegal, illegal aliens.
March 5th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Yawn. Yet another example of why someone seriously needs to un-coin that non-word “illegaler.”