Your papers, please.
We’ve all seen old movies which take place within the borders of countries controlled by oppressive regimes. Most of these movies take place during the second world war in Nazi occupied territories or behind the iron curtain during the cold war. In these movies the spy or escaped POW has to make his way out of these countries using forged identification. The intrepid hero is usually stopped at some point (usually without any cause) by a soldier or law enforcement agent and asked to produce this identification on demand. The antagonist would ask the customary question with the equally customary euro-trash accent “Your papers please.” It’s usually a very tense part of the film where the character isn’t certain if his forged credentials will pass muster. As American moviegoers we would usually look upon these scenes and be very thankful that this sort of thing could never happen here in the land of the free…or could it?
Over the past couple of years there have been concerns in libertarian circles about the possibility of the Federal government imposing a national ID law for the entire country which would render state-issued ID obsolete. This article however is not being written to address that concern. This article concerns Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 which was passed into law yesterday. This law is supposed to address the burgeoning problem of illegal aliens in the state of Arizona. The law states that anyone suspected of being in the country illegally by law enforcement will be required to produce some form of identification to prove otherwise. Many in the conservative blogsphere are fully in support of this measure. After all, it does not seem that the Federal government has any interest at all in curbing the influx of illegal aliens into this country from our southern border. It looks as though the state of Arizona is taking the problem into it’s own hands to be solved as they feel is necessary.
The major problem with this approach however should seem obvious to anyone with an I.Q. above room temperature. It’s blatantly unconstitutional. Law enforcement cannot just stop someone and ask for their identification without probable cause or a warrant. It says so in the Fourth Amendment. How does one establish probable cause to suspect someone might be in the country illegally? Could it be that they look Hispanic? A significant percentage of people in this country who are here legitimately look Hispanic. An even larger percentage of these people live in Arizona. Will Arizona law enforcement officials be stopping all people who look Hispanic? That not only sounds like a formula for excessive civil rights violations, it sounds like a lot of overtime pay for law enforcement being billed to the taxpayer. What other probable causes might prompt police to ask someone for his or her papers? Maybe they no hablo Ingles. They might not be citizens of this country, and they might not speak the language, but that does not mean that they are here illegally. They could be here on completely legitimate visas or they could even be tourists. No judge in any court would consider looking Hispanic or speaking in a foreign language as constituting probable cause that a crime is being committed.
The only reason law enforcement may have to ask a person for their identification is if there is sufficient evidence to warrant probable cause to do so. If a patrol officer engages in a traffic stop it’s usually because there has been some sort of vehicular violation (such as erratic driving, damaged tail lights, or expired registration). All of these are legitimate reasons to ask for the requisite license and registration. If it happens that the driver cannot produce a valid drivers license because they are in the country illegally than by all means they should be dealt with according to existing immigration laws. It’s the same as if during a traffic stop an officer discovers that the driver of the vehicle has an outstanding warrant. Legally appropriate action will be taken. However, simply pulling someone over because they have a Mexican flag hanging from their rear-view mirror is just as bad as pulling someone over because they have an “Abort Obama” bumper sticker. It’s an outrageous and unconstitutional overreach of government powers.
This new law in Arizona is not only going to wreak havoc on the constitutional liberties of Arizonans, it will also bankrupt the state and leave it’s economy in ruins. Civil rights lawsuits will crop up like dandelions. Legal fees and settlements will become a gaping fiscal wound in Arizona’s budget. To help pay off these legal fees the state government will undoubtedly turn to the taxpayer to foot the bill for this fiasco. The higher tax burden in all likelihood will drive businesses and jobs far away from the Grand Canyon State thus widening it’s unemployment percentage. The situation would clearly lead to a lose-lose scenario for all concerned. Would pandering to “blame illegal aliens” crowd really be worth the cost overhead that this law will undoubtedly foist upon the people of Arizona? Somehow I don’t think so, and I’m not the only one. Someone far more qualified in legal matters than me shares his opinion in the video below.