Caribbean Netnews.Com
Commentary: The Obama Administration should challenge Arizona's discriminatory law against Hispanics
Published on Saturday, May 1, 2010
By Wellington C Ramos
Recently, the Republican Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer signed a law that will give law enforcement authorities in the state of Arizona the authority to stop any person and ask them for their identification and, if they are suspected to be in the country illegally, be detained, apprehended and brought into custody then be deported back to their country. The Governor and her Republican Party in the United States have consistently opposed any federal legislation to reform immigration in the United States which has about twenty million illegal aliens living in this country for years, faith in limbo while pending their documentation.
Read the whole article here.
Snippet(s):
"They claim that the reason for this law is because the federal government has failed in stopping illegal aliens from crossing the border between Mexico and the United States from coming into the United States."
Well, it doesn't seem to me that the problem Arizona faces is an influx of boat people, after all.
"This action on their part is in violation of Article-14 of the United States Constitution, the Equal Protection Clause, which states that all American citizens should be treated equally despite their race, color, creed or religion.
This State Law could also be deemed in violation of the Supremacy Clause, which states that States can make no laws that are contrary to the laws passed by the US Congress."
And yet the Arizona immigration law only makes illegal under state law what is already illegal under federal law. Curious.
"I am appealing to the President to instruct his Attorney General William Holder to file a suit against the State of Arizona in the United States Supreme Court to challenge this law. Under the US Constitution, immigration is not a function of the states prescribed in Article-X for them to be engaged in but rather for the Federal Government."
The U.S. Constitution only has seven articles. Count them yourself. I did. There is a Section 10 in Art. I, which deals with the powers reserved to the states rather than Congress, but there's no mention of immigration.
The Tenth Amendment, on the other hand, seems to argue the other way than Prof. Ramos intends:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Prof. Ramos follows this statement with the example of Plessy v. Ferguson. Personally, I think he could have found a lot more recent examples, but they wouldn't have tended to buttress his argument.
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"I have faith, trust and confidence in this President that he will act quickly to void this law."
Since this is a state law, not one which crosses his desk in the Oval Office and is thus subject to presidential veto, this will not be a simple thing for the president to accomplish by himself.
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Born in Dangriga Town, the cultural capital of Belize, Wellington Ramos has BAs in Political Science and History from Hunter College, NY, and an MA in Urban Studies from Long Island University. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science and History
