Arizona SB1070 Safe Neighborhoods; Immigration; Law Enforcement

This bill has been passed by the Arizona Legislature and sent to the governor for signing.

This bill makes me nervous. On the surface it looks okay. Even says it's going to protect our civil rights.

J. This section shall be implemented in a manner consistent with federal laws regulating immigration, protecting the civil rights of all persons and respecting the privileges and immunities of United States citizens.

However, it looks to me like it is just waiting for corruption and abuse. I think this is just opening up a big can of worms. Just imagine the outrage and lawsuits that will happen when legal status documents are demanded of U.S. citizens for no apparent reason.

Before anyone starts the outcry that this bill requires probable cause, as does any other law allowing citizens to be searched, detained, etc. please take into account that a certain sheriff of Maricopa county has been accused of doing exactly that and is being investigated. And that is without this new law in place.

Maybe something does need to be done about illegal immigration but I don't think this is the right way to do it. Not being a lawyer, or lawmaker, I don't know what to do, I just don't think this is it.

Arizona Financial Crisis and Wasting Money

I don't understand why Arizona is at the bottom of the heap as far as State finances go. There are other States that have no income tax and/or no sales tax yet provide more services for the people of their States than Arizona (has both) does. They may have higher property taxes, but that much higher? I doubt it. It makes me wonder just where the money is really going.

To add insult to injury our governor is going to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to sue the federal government in a hopeless attempt to get the new health care plan repealed.

Fifteen other States are suing, also. Why should we waste our money also?

They are claiming that it is unconstitutional to require people to buy health insurance. And yet those same States require people to buy automobile insurance. It seems to me that if one is okay by the Constitution then the other is, too.

I know some are going to say they are not the same because you only have to buy automobile insurance if you own and/or drive an automobile. However, some people don't have a choice, they live far enough away from stores, including grocery stores where they can buy food, that a powered vehicle is required for their survival.

Our governments, federal and state, already require us to buy many things. A passport is a good example. As citizens of the United States we have the right to re-enter the United States, but if you don't have a passport you may not be able to do so. Until recently a birth certificate would do it, but the G.W. Bush administration changed that.

So here we are with the State in such dire financial straits that education funds have been cut to the bone, along with others, and our "illustrious" leaders are throwing money away on a lawsuit that even I (a layman with no financial or legal education at all) can see is a lost cause with no chance of winning.

Enjoy paying your taxes because our rulers (representatives, public servants?) are just throwing them away.