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Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Supreme Court Supports Arizona's Fight for Immigration Reform

Arizona's tenancious fight for immigration reform has paid off. Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of The Legal Arizona Workers Act. Thankfully, Arizona does not go quietly into the night.

In 2008, Janet Napolitano as Governor of Arizon signed into law what she stated as, "the most aggressive action in the country against employers who knowingly or intentionally hire undocumented workers." The Obama Administration, the Chamber of Commerce, unions, and civil rights groups opposed the law and forced it into the Supreme Court. Today, the Supreme Court upheld the law with a 5-3 majority. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that this law, "falls well within the confines of the authority Congress chose to leave to the states." This is a great win for Arizona and the Immigration battle. It opens the door for all states to do the same.

The Legal Arizona Workers Act permits Arizona to take away the business license of employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. It requires all employers to use the E-Verify system which collects data from the Social Security System and Homeland Security. The E-Verify system is in place for all states, but is not mandatory.

In addition, to opening the door for other states, this ruling foreshadows how the Supreme Court could rule on Arizona's more contentious immigration law, where the police check immigration status.

It's amazing to me that Arizona is having to go to these lengths to protect the people of their state from unemployment, not to mention the crime, with the Legal Arizona Workers Act when the U.S. already has a law in place that does the same thing.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was signed into law by President Raegan. One of the facets of this law makes it, "illegal to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants." That sounds similar to the Arizona law. In addition, this Act introduced the I-9 form to insure that anyone hired was legal to work in the U.S. Obviously this law is not being inforced which drove Arizona to put into place their law. They take it a step further than the Federal law. The Federal law imposed fines on those companies that hired illegal aliens. Arizona's law takes away the company's business license, and, since we can't count on the I-9s any longer, Arizona is mandating E-Verify.

The bigger issue here is why the President isn't enforcing the law. That's a President's responsibility, to enforce the laws of Congress. We need a real President, one that has the interest of the country in mind and not a separate agenda. We need a leader. We must be careful in our selection for 2012 and be sure that this person is a man of the people, not a man after power. After all, isn't that what the founders wanted.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7d562854-87aa-11e0-af98-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1NU6R8meh
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/05/supreme-court-backs-arizona-immigration-law/1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control_Act_of_1986
http://www.azag.gov/LegalAZWorkersAct/

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